2025 Annapolis - Saucily Individual Foal

Why We Bought This Horse

• Saucily was covered on March 11, 2024, by Annapolis and checked in and confirmed in foal on March 26, 2024.   We anticipate that this foal will be Kentucky-bred.
• This is a 2024 Individual Foal Offering and is subject to the WVS Individual Foal Program Addendum to the Wasabi Ventures Stables Thoroughbred Management Agreement.    
•   Highlights of the program:
  • Fixed Price on the Offering - No Ongoing Bills
  • Limited Exposure - Like WVS Racing Programs, there is no chance for Future Expenses. If the Foal offering loses money, WVS absorbs those costs
  • Finite Time - The Foal Offering will be liquidated at the time of his/her weaning from the mare, so you know when an offering ends.  Because you are not buying the mare, you have a finite time period of commitment (e.g. 6 to 18 months)
  • Reduced Risk - WVS will only open a Foal Offering once a mare has checked in foal to the chosen stallion
  • Perpetual Breeders Bonuses - Even after the foal is sold, a Club member can continue to earn breeding bonuses for the racing life of the horse.
  • You can watch a video about this program by visiting here. 

The BASE PRICE of this foal is $48,100

• Mare Lease $10,000
• Stallion Fee - $12,500
• Vanning Expense - $2,000
• Boarding Fee Estimate - $20,000
• Vet Estimate - $3,000
• Registration Fees (Jockey Club and State Fees) - $600

Although he retired relatively late for the 2024 breeding season, one of the new stallions that we find most intriguing is the Grade 1 winner Annapolis, who will join his sire War Front at Claiborne Farm. And he’ll be a fascinating choice for the beautifully-bred Curlin filly Saucily for her first cover.

A homebred for the Bass Racing Stable, Annapolis served notice of his potential with a series of bullet works leading up to his 2YO debut at Saratoga, and he didn’t disappoint first-time out, winning off by more than four lengths in a TDN Rising Star performance at 1-1/16 miles on turf. He came back and showed grit to go with his brilliance when he was up against it style-wise in a four-horse field for the G2 Pilgrim Stakes. Sent to keep tabs on a well-meant Chad Brown runner on the front end, Annapolis dueled the length of the Belmont stretch with that rival before just prevailing by a head, earning an 89 Beyer Speed Figure — the highest Beyer for a 2YO on turf that season.

He returned as a sophomore and finished 2nd in the G3 Penn Mile over soft turf off a seven-month layoff, then won the Manila at Belmont by open lengths. A close 2nd in the G1 Saratoga Derby when stretched to 1-3/16 miles preceded a romping, 5-1/2 length, wire-to-wire victory in the 1-1/16-mile G3 Saranac at Saratoga. Leaving straight 3YO company after that, Annapolis was sent out against a talented field of older horses in the G1 Coolmore Turf Mile and showed a brilliant turn of foot to go clear of G1Ws Ivar and Order of Australia, with the likes of Set Piece, Casa Creed, Classic Causeway, Atone, Santin and Somelikeithotbrown even further back. His winning time of 1:33.1 was a new stakes record. He then closed out his 3YO year beaten just 5-1/2 lengths in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Mile.

Annapolis returned at 4YO with a gritty victory in Churchill’s Opening Verse, then ran 2nd to Casa Creed in both the G3 Kelso and the G1 Fourstardave, prior to closing his career with a pair of off-the-board finishes when beaten small margins in the Mint Million at Kentucky Downs, and when attempting to defend his title at Keeneland.

Annapolis

In addition to the precocity and brilliance that he showed on the racetrack, Annapolis brings a stunning physical and an excellent pedigree to stud. He’s a strapping 16.2 hands, with loads of scope and substance that will impress anyone who goes to see him in person. In addition to being by War Front (the best statistical sire in the country by lifetime percentages of stakes winners, graded winners, and G1Ws), Annapolis is out of the dirt G2W My Miss Sophia, a daughter of Unbridled’s Song who placed in the G1 Kentucky Oaks and was a $4 million broodmare buy, in addition to being a half-sister to the G1 Florida Derby winner Materiality, from the immediate family of G1 Travers winner Afleet Express and G1 Alabama winner Embellish the Lace.

So Annapolis will have plenty going for him at Claiborne, and we’re excited to be sending a couple of mares his way in 2024 — including the beautifully (and dirt)-bred Saucily.

As indicated above, there is plenty of dirt form in Annapolis’s female family, and War Front himself has sired top dirt horses like War of Will, Omaha Beach, Declaration of War, Lines of Battle, Peace and War, Departing, Soldat, etc. So — as Claiborne has been pointing out in their ads for him — Annapolis has every chance of siring dirt runners, in addition to his obvious turf form.

The War Front/Curlin nick is off to a solid start, with three stakes winners (two graded, led by G2W Big Invasion) from just 15 runners, plus another G3-placed horse — that’s good for an “A++” on TrueNicks. Saucily is out of a Tapit mare, and War Front over Tapit has produced G1W Halladay and G2W Silver Prospector, so far. That latter cross brings together the siblings Rubiano (by Fappiano) and Tap Your Heels (by Unbridled) who will appear 4x4, and Annapolis also brings another line of Unbridled through his own broodmare sire.

Saucily

And there is a Grade 3-placed runner by Danzig’s son Hard Spun under Saucily’s third dam, so that doesn’t hurt our feelings about this match, either.

Physically, Annapolis’s length and scope should stretch out the slightly compact Saucily, and we are excited to see what this pairing produces for its first-time parents in 2025!