Nancy Mitchell of Clarkland Farm passed away peacefully on November 3 at the Kentucky homestead that has been in her family since 1774. She was 83 years old.

Blood-Horse first reported Mitchell’s death. In lieu of flowers, the family requested donations in Mitchell’s honor from the Alzheimer’s Association or Central Kentucky Riding for Hope.

Running Clarkland for nearly half a century alongside her husband, Fred, and daughter, Marty Buckner, Nancy and the team have been Kentucky’s top sales shippers for decades.

Clarkland has bred, bred and sold many top runners including two-time sprint champion Housebuster, senior mare champion North Sider and English champion Wind and Wuthering, 2.

But it was the 2006 purchase of a mare called Leslie’s Lady for $ 100,000 who carried a foal by Orientate at the November Keeneland sale that turned out to be Clarkland’s most memorable blood stock move. during the Mitchell’s tenure.

“She’s the best mare we’ll probably ever have,” said Fred Mitchell RTD in 2018. “Nancy chose her.”

Although Leslie’s Lady’s best achievement on the racetrack was winning a bet at Hoosier Park and none of her four foals stood out at the time, the foal she produced in 2005, the year before Clarkland bought him, became the first year winner and now- prolific stallion Into Mischief.

Leslie’s Lady in 2010 produced four times the Eclipse Award and three times the heroine of the Breeders’ Cup Beholder. In 2015, she gave birth to Mendelssohn, who topped the $ 3 million September 2016 Keeneland sale and went on to win the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the G2 UAE Derby.

Leslie’s Lady’s latest colt to be auctioned, America’s Joy, set a new price record for a filly when she hammered $ 8.2 million at the 2019 KEESEP sale. was euthanized in August 2021 after suffering a career-ending injury during training.

Now 25 years old, Leslie’s Lady retired from breeding last spring. Her penultimate foal, Marr Time (Not This Time), was shortlisted to race by Clarkland, and after winning her debut at Keeneland on October 28, she was named “Rising Star TDN”.

Marr Time was named with a nod to Nancy Mitchell’s ancestor, John Wesley Marr.

“He was an old man who never changed his clocks,” said Fred Mitchell RTD back in June. “He stayed on Central Standard Time all year. He said, “When the sun changes and my horses and I know the weather has changed, I will change.” But not “until then”.

Nancy Mitchell grew up in Clarkland. The 400-acre farm northeast of Lexington had been attributed to its ancestor, Lieutenant James Clark, for his service in the mid-18th century during the French and Indian War. Current Clarkland ownership has descended from James Clark to Nancy Mitchell and two sisters.

In addition to his success as breeders and sales shippers, Clarkland takes pride in being good stewards of the land, being part of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farms who have joined the Development Rights Program that preserves the Bluegrass farmland.