Doing an initial and superficial analysis of her race record, I'm finding it interesting. First of all, so that everyone knows what kind of a runner this filly was, her career record was 28-5-3-2 for earnings of $187,014. She won the Hoosier Debutante, which was an open race, and ran 2nd in the Martha Washington when it was just 6f, beaten just 2 lengths by the excellent The Happy Hopper (just over $800,000 in earnings).
Leslie's Lady's in-the-money percentage of 36% was, at best, mediocre. And in none of the three years that she ran did it even hit 50%. This was not because she was usually running over her head and trying stakes; only seven of her starts were in stakes (four came consecutively at the peak of her career, which was the end of her 2-year-old year and the beginning of her 3-year-old year). Going along with a low ITM %, Leslie's Lady's winning percentage of 18% was nothing to write home about. What is interesting is that when she won, she won impressively, by good margins. Her wins came by 3 lengths, 7 lengths, 2 1/2 lengths, 6 lengths, and 6 1/2 lengths. Most horses who win that authoritatively do it more often: winning big and winning often are two characteristics of the brilliant horse. From this standpoint, Leslie's Lady was only half brilliant.
You may have guessed that Leslie's Lady was a real speed horse, and that is right. She was on the lead at the first call in four of her five wins, and 2nd by a head at the first call in the other. The distances in her wins ranged from 5f to 6 1/2 furlongs, with the first three coming at under 6f. While she did not excel over her career in either winning percentage or ITM percentage, by itself, the fact that she won four races at age 2 is impressive.
I provide all of these breakdowns because Leslie's Lady has obviously been a hell of a broodmare, and an unexpectedly good broodmare. She's just by Tricky Creek, after all, and her siblings do not get the pulse racing. But despite the negatives, there were real strengths in her race record, and maybe we should be looking for the same strengths in other broodmare prospects. Lelie's Lady probably wasn't particularly brave, but she was at least moderately talented, and talent has ended up being the important component with Into Mischief and Beholder.
I really like Beholder and what she brings to the table. Watching the Debutante again, though, where she got caught by Executiveprivilege in the last couple of jumps, it occurred to me that she just may not want to go very far. She's by Henny Hughes, and he was certainly at his best at under a mile. Now that I know Lesle's Lady's record on the track, this fortifies the reading of Beholder as a sprinter.
But since Giacomo and Tiago's dam, Set Them Free, was a sprinter, I'm always a but cautious in ascribing too much significance to a dam's distance record. And Into Mischief never ran long, but he took the grade I, 1 1/16 CashCall Futurity in just his 3rd start. It's also not like Into Mischief's sire, Harlan's Holiday, is Dynaformer from a stamina perspective; Harlan's Holiday's Average-Winning-Distance is 7f, even.
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