Lion Heart Tops Live Foal Reports

The Jockey Club has reported that 3,992 stallions covered 64,123 mares in North America during 2005, according to statistics compiled through Sept. 6, 2006. These matings have resulted in 36,630 live foals of 2006 being reported to The Jockey Club on Live Foal Reports received as of Sept. 6.

Among individual stallions, Lion Heart, who stands at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Ky., is represented by the most live foals of 2006, with 187 reported as of Sept. 6. Rounding out the top 10 are Giant's Causeway  (178), Chapel Royal (175), Fusaichi Pegasus  (171), Medaglia d'Oro  (156), Johannesburg (141), Malibu Moon  (137), Tale of the Cat  (136), and the trio of Grand Slam, More Than Ready , and Northern Afleet  each at 131. Giant's Causeway was the leader by number mares covered in North America in 2005, with 244, but 29 of those mares were bred during the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, which starts in mid-September. His total of 178 live foals includes six from the Southern Hemisphere matings.

As in past years, The Jockey Club estimates that the reporting of live foals, at this point in time, is approximately 90 percent complete. The reporting of live foals of 2006 is 1.1 percent behind last year's pace when The Jockey Club had received reports for 37,025 live foals of 2005 as of this time last year.

"History indicates that we'll receive another 3,500 to 4,000 Live Foal Reports in the coming months, which will put us on track to register the 37,300 foals we previously projected for North America for 2006," said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club's vice president of registration services. "We encourage breeders who haven't submitted their Live Foal Reports to do so as soon as possible so they can complete the registration of their foals within the one-year deadline and avoid late registration fees."

In addition to the 36,630 live foals of 2006 reported through Sept. 6, The Jockey Club had also received 7,652 No Foal Reports for the 2006 foaling season.

The number of stallions declined 3.7 percent from the 4,145 reported for 2004 at this time last year, while the number of mares bred increased 0.1 percent from the 64,052 reported for 2004.

The 2005 breeding statistics are available alphabetically by stallion name through the Publications & 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 33.2 percent of the mares reported bred in North America in 2005 and 40.3 percent of the North American live foals reported for 2006.

The 21,310 mares reported bred to 370 Kentucky stallions in 2005 have produced 14,748 live foals, a 4.3 percent increase on the 14,141 Kentucky-sired live foals of 2005 reported at this time last year. The number of mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions in 2005 increased 4.2 percent against the 20,443 reported for 2004 at this time last year.

Among the 13 states and provinces in which stallions covered at least 1,000 mares in 2005, six produced more state/province-sired live foals in 2006 than in 2005 as reported at this time last year and six produced fewer. Florida produced the same number. Florida ranked second this year, with 4,084 live foals, and California was third, with 3,380.

The statistics include 448 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, 75 live foals by North American stallions were reported from Korea (33 reported in 2005). Second was Ireland which reported 64 live foals (24 reported in 2005).

Remaining countries on the list, with 2005 returns in parentheses, are Japan, 63 (50); Great Britain, 38 (30); Thailand, 31 (5); India, 29 (33); Mexico, 26 (42); Saudi Arabia, 25 (11); France, 20 (16); Argentina, 19 (9); Jamaica, 15 (8); Trinidad, 10 (no report in 2005); Australia, 7 (no report in 2005); Philippines, 7 (8); Barbados, 5 (3); Chile, 4 (15); Brazil, 3 (4); Austria, 2 (2); Dominican Republic, 2 (no report in 2005); Germany, 2 (2); and Peru, 1 (no report in 2005).

The report also includes 94 mares bred to 31 stallions in North America on Southern Hemisphere time. The majority of these mares have not foaled.

NOTE: Click here to view alphabetical listings of stallions with number of mares bred, number of live foals produced, and standing state for the 1997-2005 breeding seasons.