News Releases

Thursday, September 14, 2006Contact: Bob Curran Jr. (212) 521-5326
The Jockey Club Releases 2005 Breeding Statistics

The Jockey Club today 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, 2006.

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 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 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 amount.

The 13 states and provinces, ranked by number of state/province-sired live foals of 2006 reported through Sept. 6, are:

Stallion Location

2005 Mares Bred

2005 Live Foals

2006 Live Foals

Pct. Change

Kentucky

21,310

14,141

14,748

+4.3

Florida

7,093

4,084

4,084

0.0

California

5,236

3,707

3,380

-8.8

Louisiana

3,628

1,635

1,786

+9.2

Texas

2,952

1,432

1,289

-10.0

New York

2,364

1,504

1,285

-14.6

Maryland

1,743

997

1,021

+2.4

New Mexico

1,850

731

850

+16.3

Ontario

1,525

967

841

-13.0

Oklahoma

1,590

692

679

-1.9

Pennsylvania

1,219

515

583

+13.2

Washington

1,200

640

569

-11.1

West Virginia

1,179

443

547

+23.5

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.

Among individual stallions, Lion Heart sired the most live foals of 2006 with 187 reported as of Sept. 6. The top stallions by number of live foals of 2006 are:

Stallion

Location

2006 Live Foals

Lion Heart

Kentucky

187

Giant’s Causeway

Kentucky

178

Chapel Royal

Kentucky

175

Fusaichi Pegasus

Kentucky

171

Medaglia d’Oro

Kentucky

156

Johannesburg

Kentucky

141

Malibu Moon

Kentucky

137

Tale of the Cat

Kentucky

136

Grand Slam

Kentucky

131

More Than Ready

Kentucky

131

Northern Afleet

Kentucky

131

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 companies and by providing support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives.