2025 Army Mule - Raggedy Individual Foal

Why We Bought This Horse

• Raggedy was covered on April 3, 2024, by Army Mule and checked in and confirmed in foal on April 17, 2024.   Our anticipation is 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 $56,933

• Mare Lease $8,333
• Stallion Fee - $25,000
• Vanning Expense - $2,000
• Boarding Fee Estimate - $18,000
• Vet Estimate - $3,000
• Registration Fees (Jockey Club and State Fees) - $600
   

  The flashy young broodmare Raggedy has a pedigree that is Lane’s End both top and bottom for the first couple of generations: her sire, Belmont winner Union Rags, stands at the farm still, having joined his own sire there upon his retirement, while her broodmare sire, Courageous Cat, also started his stallion career there. Meanwhile, Raggedy’s dam, the unraced Secret Ballot, was bred in partnership by Lane’s End’s Bill Farish from his homebred stakes winner Private Status.

  Secret Ballot is a half-sister to the Lane’s End homebred G1 Kentucky Oaks and G1 Mother Goose winner Secret Status (by A.P. Indy, and to whom traces G1W Fair Maiden), to multiple G3W Alumni Hall (by A.P. Indy), to stakes winner Private Gift (dam of multiple G2W Private Mission, plus stakes winner and G3P Secret Someone as well as the multiple stakes-placed Profetiza, the latter pair both by A.P. Indy), and to stakes-placed State Treasure (by A.P. Indy’s son Mineshaft).

  Meanwhile, Raggedy herself is a half-sister to the stakes-placed Savoy (by A.P. Indy’s son Honor Code).

  Given that A.P. Indy spent his entire stallion career at Lane’s End, it is not surprising that this female family has had repeated success with him. But since he is absent from Raggedy’s own pedigree, that makes his grandson Army Mule a perfect first match for her (even if he stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale rather than Lane’s End).

  Despite being by the regionally-based Friesan Fire, Army Mule nevertheless brought $825,000 as a 2YO in-training based on his powerful physique and excellent pre-sale breeze. Campaigned by St. Elias Stable with trainer Todd Pletcher, Army Mule only ran three times, but won all three of those starts by open lengths, including the G1 Carter in just his third career start. Given a shot at stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale (also the starting place of such lightly-raced but successful stallions as Candy Ride and Maclean’s Music), Army Mule started at an initial fee of $10,000. His first crop, which raced in 2022, overcame that lower fee and a relatively low quality of mares (his career CI currently sits at 1.04) to rank Army Mule 4th on the Leading Freshman Sire List, behind only Bolt d’Oro, Justify and Good Magic — who each also had between 30 and 50 more foals to take to the races than Army Mule did.

  With another year under his belt, Army Mule now has seven black-type winners plus 13 more black-type earners to his credit from just 103 starters, giving him an excellent 19.4% black-type earners/runners, and he has a very strong 1.49 AEI to go with that 1.04 CI, which is a pretty incredible ratio indicating that he’s achieving all this early success with practically no help from his mates.

  Having received a fee bump to $25,000 for 2024 (he was officially $12,500 in 2023 but with seasons trading for close to double that later in the season during which he ended up covering a total of 199 mares), we fully expect that Army Mule’s statistics will look even better in a few years as the foals from these higher quality of mares come to the races. And he has already received a commercial boost on the basis of his race results with 40 third crop yearlings averaging $75,940 in 2023 (a big jump from the $59,155 averaged by 29 second crop yearlings sold in 2022 — both these yearling crops conceived off of $7,500 advertised fees).

   

  In addition to the success that Raggedy’s family has had with A.P. Indy as we put forth above, we also take heart from the fact that A.P. Indy-line stallions have had success with Dixie Union mares, and Army Mule’s own sire, Friesan Fire, has seven winners from eight starters (average earnings of almost $70k per runner) out of mares by sons of Dixie Union’s sire Dixieland Band.

   

  Physically, Army Mule is a strongly-made, well-balanced horse who suits a wide range of mares, which should include the leggy, racy Raggedy. And hopefully this pairing produces a similarly well-balanced and correct individual, and one that achieves success in the sales ring and on the racetrack!