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 now 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 Sharma in 2026.
Many of you will have read Army Mule’s resume here before, but we’ll lay out the pertinent facts again here 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 1.18) 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.
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 are weanlings now 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 (10.6% to runners) with another ten 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 include the pricey and promising Soldier N Diplomat and romping recent winner Paige Turner, who join his early season undefeated black-type winner Pinky Finger (back on the worktab after a summer/fall break). And Army Mule’s career AEI to CI ratio remains a robust 1.38/1.18, so he’s still moving those lower-tier mares up.
As for why Army Mule fits Sharma specifically, her black-type sibling Padma is sired by Tapit, an A.P. Indy grandson just like Army Mule, while further back on the page are the G1 winners To Honor and Serve and Angela Renee, both by A.P. Indy’s son Bernardini. Then both Padma and Sharma’s promising 3YO half-sister Kapoor have shown their best form sprinting on dirt, which was Army Mule’s forte as well (though admittedly his offspring have been far more versatile as to their distance capabilities and surface preferences).
We also love this pairing on physical, as well. Sharma is very correct and not small, but is perhaps a tad sparsely-made, and with Army Mule being a strong, stout, extremely robust individual with tons of substance, he should really help her produce a foal that will appeal to buyers at the sales when the time comes.
So there is lots to like about this mating, and we are excited to give Sharma another chance with a proven young stallion in 2026 given how impressive her pedigree is!