2024 Midshipman - Giving Spirit Individual Foal

Why We Bought This Horse

2/8/24: Giving Spirit foaled a healthy filly who we have nicknamed "Ghirardelli".

• Giving Spirit was covered on March 7, 2023, by Midshipman and WVS purchased the her at the Keeneland January 2024 sale.   Our anticipation is that this foal will be Maryland-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.   https://share.zight.com/xQuQ9KA9
•   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 sometime in its yearling year, 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 $47,600
• Mare Lease $22,500
• Stallion Fee - $0
• Vanning Expense - $2,000
• Boarding Fee Estimate - $16,000
• Insurance - $4,500
• Vet Estimate - $2,000
• Registration Fees (Jockey Club and State Fees) - $600

Wasabi recently acquired the well-bred young Ghostzapper mare Giving Spirit at the 2024 Keeneland January Sale, and while much of our interest in her stemmed from the fact that her 3YO half-brother Maycocks Bay showed stakes potential in his recent allowance win at Fair Grounds (where he earned a 95 Beyer), it certainly did not dissuade us that she was carrying her first foal on a March 7th cover to one of our favorite proven Kentucky sires in Midshipman.

A winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile-G1 and Eclipse Champion 2YO, Midshipman has carved out a successful stallion career at Darley by siring precocious and versatile runners like he was himself, with his best runners including the Chilean Triple Crown winner Fortino and G1W Royal Ship (also a graded winner in the USA), as well as graded stakes winners like Dearest, Lady Shipman (the dam of Golden Pal), Special Reserve, Princess Warrior, Fun and Feisty, etc. He is also the sire of 2023 juvenile stakes winners Amidst Waves and Ship Cadet. His 6% stakes winners/foals and 13% stakes horses/foals are both very strong numbers for a stallion that stands at the $20k or under level -- especially when you look at his 1.34 AEI to 1.17 CI ratio -- and he can get a solid sales horse as well.

As a stallion with plenty of size, bone and substance without being too large or coarse, he makes a great physical match for a young mare like Giving Spirit, and his proclivities should match up nicely with the precocity and surface versatility in her immediate family.

The cross of Unbridled's Song's sons with mares by Ghostzapper rates an "A+" on TrueNicks with a small sample size (two stakes winners from 20 runners overall, and Midshipman has just one runner out of a Ghostzapper mare so far), and Midshipman with Medaglia d'Oro mares (he being Giving Spirit's broodmare sire) has produced Grade 3 winner Naval Laughter and the black-type placed Doc Amster from six runners and four winners bred that way. (And Midshipman crossed with mares who have Medaglia d'Oro as their broodmare sire is two-for-two producing winners.)

So there is every reason to be excited about Giving Spirit's first foal, which should be born nice and early and kick her produce record off with a strong start!