THE well-named America’s Joy has died after an accident in training. She had yet to face the starter, but the fact that she was due to race would indicate that connections were hopeful she would win, and maybe do better.

After all, the three-year-old daughter of the Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) was purchased as a yearling for a record $8,200,000 by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, and she was in training with Todd Pletcher.

Bred by Clarkland Farm, she was a half-sister to four-time champion Beholder (Henny Hughes), Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner and Ashford Stud sire Mendelssohn (Scat Daddy), and the multiple champion sire Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday).

The price obtained for America’s Joy is a Keeneland Sale record for a filly and equals the fourth-highest price for a yearling sold at the auction.

Clarkland bred the filly from the stakes-winning Tricky Creek (Clever Creek) mare Leslie’s Lady. “I don’t have any words,” Clarkland’s Fred Mitchell said at the time. “It’s unreal. But in my opinion, this was the best individual the old mare has ever had. Can you believe a 22-year-old mare (in 2018) had something like this?” The mare has produced two subsequent fillies.

In 2006 Clarkland bought Leslie’s Lady for $100,000 at Keeneland’s November Sale. Selling the filly for $8.2 million was “something we never dreamed of in our life,” Mitchell said. “We dream of breeding a nice horse, and this is what it’s all about for the little consignors and the small guys.”

Also speaking at the sale in 2019, Pope said: “You can’t fault her. She’s perfectly balanced. She’s gorgeous - not too big or small. This will probably put me out of shopping in November; I think I pretty much went through my broodmare budget for November.”

Grade 1 winners

Leslie’s Lady is the dam of six winners, three of them successful at Grade 1 level. While Into Mischief and Mendelssohn won once at that level, Beholder won 11 Grade 1 races, and she was victorious on 18 occasions in all. She won three times at the Breeders’ Cup, and her winnings equate to about £4 million. She was sold as a yearling for €180,000.

Though Leslie’s Lady had three Grade 1 winners, none of her other runners earned any blacktype of any kind.

In fact, her record as a producer has something of a highs and lows feel to it.

The basic statistics are that she had 16 foals, 14 are named, 13 are of racing age (including a two-year-old), eight ran, six were winners and two placed.