Number of North American Mares Bred Declines 2.4%

The Jockey Club released Oct. 25 the report of mares bred statistics for the 2022 breeding season, which showed a continuation of the overall decline in mares bred and active stallions.

Based on RMBs received through Oct.18, The Jockey Club reports that 925 stallions covered 27,163 mares in North America during 2022. The reported number of mares bred is down 2.4% compared with the mares reported as of this time a year ago. The number of stallions is down 9%.

The Jockey Club estimates an additional 2,500-3,500 mares will be reported as bred during the 2022 breeding season, which is not expected to significantly impact the percentage, as a similar number would have been reported in the final months of 2021.

RMB statistics for all reported stallions in 2022 are available through the Fact Book section of The Jockey Club's website at jockeyclub.com.

Three Chimneys Farm's leading sire Gun Runner   attracted the largest book this year at 248 mares. His popularity is not surprising since he set a progeny earnings record as the leading freshman sire of 2021 and seems a lock to become the leading second-crop sire of 2022 with more than two times the progeny earnings (nearly $11.7 million) of second-ranked Arrogate.

For the year, 16 stallions bred books of 200 or more mares. They included Yaupon   (242), Mendelssohn   (230), Practical Joke   (227), Not This Time   (225), Charlatan   (222), Rock Your World   (219), Mo Town   (218), Tiz the Law   (218), Omaha Beach   (205), Authentic   (202), Independence Hall   (202), Into Mischief   (202), Mitole   (202), Munnings   (201), and Maclean's Music   (200).

Yaupon, Charlatan, Rock Your World, and Independence Hall all covered their first books of mares this year. The top 10 stallions of this sire class by mares bred also include Tacitus   (188), Silver State   (171), Known Agenda   (166), Maxfield   (163), Beau Liam   (162), and Essential Quality   (162).

The sire with the most appreciable growth in mares bred is Legacy Ranch's second-crop sire Straight Fire  , a grade 1-placed son of Dominus   who was represented by a single foal in 2022 from one mare bred. During this year's breeding season, the California sire attracted a book of 61 mares.

Straight Fire ranks among the top 25 North American second-crop sires by progeny earnings and has the fewest foals among the top 30 second-crop sires. From his limited crops, he has sired 6% stakes winners from named foals and has 68% winners from starters. His top runners include multiple stakes winner Straight Up G  and stakes winners Smuggler's Run  and Power Surge . He also has three stakes-placed performers contributing to more than $1.4 million in progeny earnings, an average of $45,714 per runner. Straight Fire is the third-leading, second-crop California sire by earnings but the leader of his class by number of career stakes winners and stakes performers. He entered stud at $3,500 and stood for $7,500 this year.

Kentucky continues to lead North America in Thoroughbred breeding activity. During 2022, Kentucky's 196 reported stallions covered 16,689 mares, or 61.4% of all of the mares reported bred in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. The number of mares bred to Kentucky stallions decreased 0.2% from the 16,727 mares bred reported at this time last year.

Of the top 10 states and provinces by number of mares reported bred in 2022, stallions in New York and Indiana covered more mares in 2022 than in 2021, as reported at this time last year. The following table shows the top 10 states and provinces ranked by number of mares reported bred in 2022:

Note: Each incident in which a mare was bred to more than one stallion and appeared on multiple RMBs is counted separately. As such, mares bred totals listed in the table above may differ slightly from counts of distinct mares bred.

In addition, RMB information on stallions that bred mares in North America is available through report 36P or a subscription service at equineline.com/ReportOfMaresBred.