Fewer foals this year probably means fewer racehorses for the future. The Jockey Club reported that 3,638 stallions covered 61,262 mares in North America during 2007, according to statistics compiled through Sept. 4, 2008. These matings have resulted in 34,561 live foals of 2008 being reported to The Jockey Club on Live Foal Reports received as of Sept. 4, 2008.
As in past years, The Jockey Club estimates that the reporting of live foals, at this point in time, is approximately 90% complete. The reporting of live foals of 2008 is down 4.8% from last year at this time when The Jockey Club had received reports for 36,317 live foals of 2007.
“The decline in live foals of 2008 reported to date corresponds to the decline in mares bred during 2007,” said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s vice president of registration services. “These factors led us to revise our registered foal crop projection for 2008 downward by 900 foals to 36,600.”
Central Kentucky stallions Johannesburg and Stormy Atlantic came in tops by number of live foals so far. Each was bred to upwards of 190 mares in 2007 and each reached the 150-mark by number of live foals this year. Forty-five stallions are represented by 100 or more live foals this year compared to 37 stallions in 2007.
Johannesburg (Hennessy—Myth, by Ogygian) was bred to 195 mares and came through with 153 live foals. He stands at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky.
Stormy Atlantic, who holds court at John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington, covered 199 mares, and the result was 150 live foals. He is by Storm Cat out of the grade I-winning Seattle Slew mare Hail Atlantis.
In addition to the 34,561 live foals of 2008 reported through Sept. 4, The Jockey Club had also received 7,199 No Foal Reports for the 2008 foaling season.
The number of stallions declined 6.3 percent from the 3,881 reported for 2006 at this time last year, while the number of mares bred decreased 3.7 percent from the 63,629 reported for 2006.
The 2007 breeding statistics are available alphabetically by stallion name through the Publications and Resources link on The Jockey Club homepage at http://www.jockeyclub.com.
Iuliano emphasized that the breeding statistics are not a measurement of the live foals born in each state or province, but rather a count of state/province-sired live foals, regardless of where the foals were born. He also stressed that the statistics should not be taken to represent the fertility record of any one stallion.
Kentucky annually leads all states and provinces in terms of Thoroughbred breeding activity. Kentucky-based stallions accounted for 35.8 percent of the mares reported bred in North America in 2007 and 43.5 percent of the live foals reported for 2008.
The 21,938 mares reported bred to 358 Kentucky stallions in 2007 have produced 15,040 live foals, a 1.6 percent increase on the 14,801 Kentucky-sired live foals of 2007 reported at this time last year. The number of mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions in 2007 increased 2.3 percent against the 21,455 reported for 2006 at this time last year.
Among the 11 states and provinces in which stallions covered at least 1,000 mares in 2007, two produced more state/province-sired live foals in 2008 than in 2007 as reported at this time last year and nine produced fewer.
The 11 states and provinces, ranked by number of state/province-sired live foals of 2008 reported through Sept. 4, are:
The statistics include 525 progeny of stallions standing in North America but foaled abroad, as reported by foreign stud book authorities at the time of publication. In this category, 135 live foals by North American stallions were reported from Korea (128 reported in 2007). Second was Venezuela, which reported 67 live foals (27 reported in 2007).
Remaining countries on the list, with 2007 returns in parentheses, are Japan, 54 (59); India, 48 (5); Mexico, 44 (36); Argentina, 39 (no report in 2007); Philippines, 33 (13); Ireland, 21 (75); Saudi Arabia, 21 (20); Thailand, 18 (17); Trinidad, 12 (no report in 2007); France, 10 (2); Brazil, 9 (6); Chile, 5 (7); Great Britain, 4 (44); Ecuador, 2 (no report in 2007); Turkey, 2 (no report in 2007); and Sweden, 1 (1).
The report also includes 105 mares bred to 31 stallions in North America on Southern Hemisphere time. The majority of these mares have not foaled.
The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. The Jockey Club fulfills that longstanding commitment by serving the industry through its family of companies and by providing support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives.