We have been very high on Army Mule for several seasons in a row now, as his biggest and best-bred crops of foals work their way to the races, and we are certainly not going to jump off the bandwagon with the results of those higher quality matings just a season away! As a proven, versatile horse capable of producing an excellent physical specimen, he’ll be a perfect match for the young mare Bluelightspecial in 2026.
Many of you will have read Army Mule’s resume here before, but we’ll lay out the pertinent facts again for the folks that are new to our blog:
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 began 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 is now all the way up to 1.19) 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.
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Army Mule 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), took a slight trim to $20,000 in 2025, and will be back up to $25,000 in ‘26. The foals conceived in ‘24 were weanlings in late ‘25, and while his year-to-year yearling average and median stayed about the same, his 15 weanlings to sell in ‘25 averaged $106,600 ($85k median) compared to 15 weanlings that sold in ‘24 for an average of $59,500 ($35k median).
What this demonstrates is that not only has the quality of Army Mule’s mares improved, but he has continued to get it done on the racetrack with his early crops in the meantime. He’s now up to 21 black-type winners (10.2% to runners) with another 12 black-type runners to his credit as well, including ‘25 2YO graded stakes winner Ground Support (also 3rd in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf). His other juveniles last season included the pricey and promising Soldier N Diplomat and romping maiden winner Paige Turner, who both picked up black-type late in the year to join Ground Support and Army Mule’s early season undefeated black-type winner Pinky Finger. And Army Mule’s career AEI to CI ratio remains a robust 1.37/1.19, so he’s still moving those lower-tier mares up.
Bluelightspecial brings plenty of her own credentials to this matchup, as a winner of seven of her 21 starts from 2YO through 4YO, including a pair of Indiana-bred black-type stakes. She placed in seven more races, including four additional black-type events, one of them an open company stakes at Oaklawn, and another her only turf try. So she had plenty of ability, lots of speed, and some versatility — all hallmarks of Army Mule and his offspring as well.
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Bluelightspecial’s winning dam is a full-sister to one black-type runner and a half to four more, including the multiple black-type winner Goombada Guska, and there is plenty of black-type under her next two dams as well. Given her page and her own racing ability, we were excited to acquire her as a broodmare prospect for our clients at CJT Stables, and getting a foal by a proven stallion to kick off her breeding career is always our preferred pattern when it works.
Although Bluelightspecial’s female family has not had much exposure to Army Mule’s A.P. Indy sire-line, TrueNicks rates this matchup as an “A+” (looking at A.P. Indy over Super Saver), thanks to a couple of G3 winners and 2025 black-type winning 2YO filly Percy’s Bar (who was DQ’ed from a win in the G1 Alcibiades) from just 30 runners on the cross (three more of which are black-type placed).
That nick rating, combined with the similar proclivities and like-to-like physical matchup gives us plenty of confidence in this pairing, and we fully expect a fast and early foal from it!