Live foals expected to reach 37,500 in 2007, Jockey Club says

Live foals throughout North America so far in 2007, as reported to the Jockey Club, are running slightly behind last year's pace, but the organization says that, with additional reports in the next few months, its previously announced projection of 37,500 registered live foals in 2007 is likely to be on target.

The club reported that 3,881 stallions covered 63,629 mares in North America during 2006, resulting in 36,317 live foals, according to statistics compiled through Sept. 6. There had been 36,630 live foals by this time in 2006. Reporting was 90 percent complete by Sept. 6.

"Breeders who have yet to report their 2007 live foals should do so immediately to complete the registration of their foals within the one-year deadline and avoid late-registration fees," says Matt Iuliano, the Jockey Club's vice president for registration services.

In addition to the 36,317 live foals reported through Sept. 6, the club also received 7,425 no-foal reports for the 2007 foaling season.

The 2006 breeding statistics are available alphabetically by stallion name through the Publications & Resources link on the Jockey Club's Web site.

Iuliano says breeding statistics do not reflect live foals born in each state or province, but rather are a count of state/province-sired live foals, regardless of where the foals were born. And they do not represent the fertility record of any one stallion, he explains.

Kentucky leads all states and provinces in terms of Thoroughbred breeding activity, accounting for 33.7 percent of the mares bred in North America in 2006 and 40.8 percent so far in 2007.

The 21,455 mares reported bred to 372 Kentucky stallions in 2006 produced 14,801 live foals, a 0.4 percent increase over the 14,748 Kentucky-sired live foals of 2006 at this time. The number of mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions in 2006 rose 0.7 percent from the 21,310 reported for 2005 by this date last year.

Among the 14 states and provinces in which stallions covered at least 1,000 mares in 2006, four produced more live foals in 2007 than in 2006 by this date, and 10 produced fewer.

The four with increases were Kentucky, up 0.4 percent; Louisiana, up 12.9 percent; New Mexico, up 17.3 percent; and New York, up 2.4 percent. The 10 states/provinces with decreases were Florida, down 0.5 percent; California, down 7.4 percent; Texas, down 5.9 percent; Maryland, down 5.4 percent; Ontario, down 6.9 percent; Oklahoma, down 11.5 percent; Pennsylvania, down 5.7 percent; West Virginia, down 6.9 percent; Washington, down 12.8 percent; and Illinois, down 8.7 percent.

Among individual stallions, Giant's Causeway (Kentucky) sired the most live foals of 2007, with 168 reported by Sept. 6.