Mendelssohn Well Represented at Keeneland September
Popular Grade I winner Mendelssohn was a $3 million yearling at the Keeneland September Sale and this year looks to again light up the pavilion with his first yearlings going through the ring five years after he topped this sale.
Book 1 of the Keeneland September Sale sees six Mendelssohn yearlings currently scheduled to sell, starting with Hip 11.
Offered by Betz Thoroughbreds, the filly out of Involved is a three-quarter sister to both stakes winner Man of Promise and four-time with Conquest Sure Shot. Both out of Involved, Man Of Promise is by Mendelssohn’s half-brother and Conquest Sure Shot is by his sire Scat Daddy. A winner herself, Involved is a half-sister to Grade III winner Skip to the Stone and stakes winner My Heavenly Sign. There are stakes winners under each of the yearling’s first five dams with her fourth dam being the Grade I winner The Very One.
From Mendelssohn’s breeder and consigner Clarkland Farm comes Hip 58, a colt out of Lookin At Lucky’s stakes winner and Grade I-placed Maybellene.
The colt’s granddam is a half-sister to Grade III winner Rossini and multiple graded stakes winner Elusive Quality, who also proved to be a good sire. Also named on the page are German champion Gold And Ivory and champion Anees. Every dam on this colt’s page is either a stakes winner or producer with eight stakes winners named under his first four dams.
South Point Sales is the consignor of Hip 91, the second foal out of No Lip Service. No Lip Service is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Listen Here and stakes winner Indy Bird with stakes-placed half-sister Listen producing Grade I winner La Coronel. This colt’s family also includes Grade I winner Listening, and Grade II winners Beautiful Noise and Linda among others.
Castle Park Farm presents Hip 100, the second foal out of the Galileo mare Our Maria Celeste. The colt’s second dam is the dam of dual Grade I winner General Quarters, Tale of the Cat’s Grade II winner A Shin Top and Tale of the Cat’s stakes-placed New Wave.
Scat Daddy sons bred to Galileo mares have sired stakes winners Amanzi Yimpilo and Tango while Scat Daddy himself sired stakes winner Million on the cross.
The second session of Book 1 starts with Hip 274 for Mendelssohn, a filly out of Belle’s Finale from the Taylor Made Sales consignment.
Bred by Ramspring Farm, the filly is out of a young Ghostzapper mare who has already seen her first to race come home a winner. Out of Grade I winner Capote Belle, Belle’s Finale is a full sister to stakes winner and Grade III-placed Zapper Belle. Capote Belle’s influence as a producer of producers fills up the page with Zapper Bell the dam of stakes winner Kabella and daughter Gata Bella the dam of both stakes winners and stakes producers.
Gata Bella’s success in the shed includes multiple Grade II winner and Grade I-placed Catapult and stakes winner Ha Ha Tonka. Ha Ha Tonka is the dam of multiple stakes winner She’sonthewarpath with another Gata Bella daughter producing stakes winner Bourne In Nixa.
The final of Mendelssohn's Book 1 offerings is a colt supplemented to the sale as Hip 399C.
Bred by Springhouse Farm and Circular Rd Breeders, the colt was a six-figure RNA earlier this year. Going through the ring as one of the last in Book 1, he is a three-quarter brother to stakes winner and Grade III-placed Jo Jo Air. The pair’s two-time winning dam Tessie Flip is a half-sister to dual Grade I winner Switch and stakes winner Keystone Gulch, who has produced multiple stakes performers in Australia.
Tessie Flip has often visited the Ashford breeding shed with the mare producing a $425,000 filly by Uncle Mo named Staley’s Flip, a winning American Pharoah colt named Amsden, and a juvenile Practical Joke colt who sold for $225,000 at this sale last year.
This family also includes Hip 567 from Dixiana Farms. That Mendelssohn colt is out of Tessie Flip’s half-sister Switched Up.
Mendelssohn currently has 26 yearlings set to go through the ring in Book 2.
Among those in the first session is Hip 412, a three-quarter brother to a stakes-placer out of a stakes winning half-sister to champion Kalanisi; Hip 462, a grandson of multiple Grade I winner Starrer; Gainesway’s Hip 603 out of a half-sister to champion Covfefe; Hip 680, a half-brother to Grade I winner Apollo Kentucky; and Hip 705, a half-brother to Grade I winner Fire At Will out of a half-sister to Grade I winner Decorated Invader.
Thursday’s session includes another group of well-bred Mendelssohn yearlings, kicking off with a filly out of a half-sister to Grade I winner Lilacs And Lace, who produced champion Lucky Lilac, as Hip 779. Among the others are a filly out of a half-sister to multiple Grade I-placed Solomini from the family of multiple Grade I winner Frosted as Hip 911 and a granddaughter of Grade I winner and Jude daughter Quarter Moon as Hip 1025.
Mendelssohn’s first yearlings this year have averaged $172,300 for 14 sold, led by a $435,000 filly.