Decline in number of stallions and mares bred to continues in North America

The Jockey Club has released 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 to October 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 per cent compared with the mares reported as of this time a year ago. The number of stallions is down nine per cent.

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.

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

Of the top ten 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 ten 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.

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