First Foal A Filly For Mendelssohn

Grade I winner and record setter Mendelssohn welcomed his first foal on Tuesday night when Lilacs and Lilies foaled a filly at Brookstown Farm.

Bred by Judy Hicks and Kathryn Nikkel, the filly is the first foal for the half-sister to Grade I winner Lilacs and Lace, who is also the dam of Japan’s 2017 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Lucky Lilac.

“She is a lovely quality foal, very much in the image of her sire, with great bone! Delighted to have a filly from the family,” said Nikkel of the filly.

Lilacs and Lilies comes from a truly international family with her granddam four-time U.S. Grade I winner Stella Madrid. Stella Madrid is also the great-granddam of Japanese Champion Mikki Isle and Japanese Group I winner Aerolithe.

A $3 million yearling, Mendelssohn proved to be brilliant on both surfaces when winning the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf a juvenile and the Grade II UAE Derby by 18 ½ lengths in course record time as a 3-year-old before finishing second in the GI Travers at Saratoga.