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Wasabi’s young broodmare Floral Hall is a half-sister to the multiple G2W Skylighter, by A.P. Indy’s grandson Sky Mesa, and to stakes winner Cave Hill, by Frosted, a son of A.P. Indy’s grandson Tapit, while one of her half-sisters has produced the G3P/SW Meru, also by Sky Mesa. As such, A.P. Indy’s grandson Army Mule figures to be a strong match for her in 2024.
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 ten black-type winners plus six more black-type earners to his credit from just 109 starters, giving him an excellent 14.7% 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).
Army Mule has a winner from his only runner out of a Bodemeister mare (Bodemeister being the sire of Floral Hall), and that is one of two winners from two runners for him out of mares by sons of Empire Maker. If we take it back another level and look at his production with mares by grandsons of Unbridled, Army Mule has four runners from four foals of racing age, three of which are winners including a black-type winner — so 25% SW/foals bred that way, not a shabby start!
Physically this is a matchup that we like a lot as well — Floral Hall is a leggy, elegant, feminine mare who will really benefit from the infusion of bone and substance that Army Mule brings to the table, to go along with his strength and incredible balance. On proclivities, the Army Mules have been able to do it all so far, and that should blend nicely with Floral Hall’s family, which has included successful runners at a variety of distances, surfaces and ages.
So everything about this pairing is exciting, and we think it gives Floral Hall another excellent shot to be an important broodmare for Wasabi!