Five big talking points to emerge from this year's Weatherbys Return of Mares
James Thomas highlights the key facts from the annual breeders' bible
1. Jet Away among those whose popularity has taken off
Arctic Tack Stud resident Jet Away has never struggled for numbers, with the son of Cape Cross having covered three-figure books in each of the five previous seasons he has stood at the County Wexford operation.
However, in 2020 his popularity with National Hunt breeders soared, rising from a tally of 143 mares in 2019 to a whopping 288. This total saw Jet Away finish second only to Maxios in terms of popularity.
He sired three winners from his first four runners earlier this year, with Brandy Love striking by eight lengths at Cragmore for Colin Bowe, Supreme Jet landing an Oldtown maiden for Patrick O'Farrell, and Denis Murphy's Bring The Action scoring at Tinahely by two lengths.
Darley's rising star sire Night Of Thunder was reported to be heavily oversubscribed at a fee of just €25,000 after his first two-year-olds included 28 European winners and a record-equalling seven black- type scorers. That demand translated into a book of 213 mares, up from 106 the previous season.
The increase in quantity was mirrored by a rise in quality, with those 213 mares featuring 53 black-type winners (25 per cent), up from just eight (eight per cent) 12 months earlier. Among that number are the likes of Alexander Goldrun, Cassandra Go and Dolniya, as well as the dams of King Of Change, Precieuse, Slade Power and Was.
2. 200 club membership declines
Although it has become the norm for the most popular stallions to cover gargantuan books of mares, the number of sires who covered a book of 200-plus dropped slightly in 2020 to 17, from 19 in 2019.
Although the number of stallions covering 200-plus mares may have dropped year-on-year, those 17 names still accounted for 3,991 mares between them - some 19 per cent of the 20,626 coverings recorded in the Return of Mares.
3. The new boys in demand
Among the hundreds of pages packed with tiny text in the Return of Mares, the first port of call for many breeders, agents and bloodstock buffs will be the index at the back containing the list of active stallions and their book sizes.
It is in this section that we learn the fate of the new recruits to stud, and plenty of those who covered their first mares in 2020 plainly caught breeders' imaginations in a big way.
4. Camelot holding court with classy jumps mares
Over the seven seasons Camelot has spent at stud, the son of Montjeu has become a well-established source of high-class Flat runners. His roll of honour features 62 stakes performers, among which are six elite winners.
He has sired a Group 1-winning two-year-old in Criterium de Saint-Cloud victress Wonderment; a brace of Irish Classic winners, with Latrobe having won the Irish Derby and Even So taking the Irish Oaks; Athena gave him a Stateside Grade 1 victory in the Belmont Oaks Invitational; while Cox Plate hero Sir Dragonet and the northern hemisphere-bred Russian Camelot have ensured his influence has been felt at Group 1 level in Australia too.
Annie Power has visited Camelot before, with her debut covering from the Derby winner in 2017, but she sadly lost the foal.
Indeed, the decision to allow Sadler's Wells to cover jumps mares led to McManus and his wife, Noreen, breeding their homebred Gold Cup hero Synchronised.
5. The sales-topping starlet finding a new vocation
Godolphin stunned the bloodstock world when landing the top lot at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2017. Not only was the filly in question by Galileo - her purchase coming in the year that Godolphin ended their self-imposed embargo on Coolmore stallions and their progeny - but she fetched a cool 4,000,000gns.
Busiest sires in Britain and Ireland in 2020
StallionNo. of mares covered
Maxios298
Jet Away288
Crystal Ocean280
Churchill250
Order Of St George247
Getaway242
Wings Of Eagles241
Walk In The Park235
Soldier Of Fortune224
Poet's Word221
Inns Of Court218
Ten Sovereigns214
Night Of Thunder213
Affinisea209
Sea The Stars206
Idaho204
Berkshire201
Blue Point198
No Nay Never193
Shirocco182
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- Highs, lows and my Serbian counterpart provide a stern test of sales reporting stamina
- A glitch in the bloodstock matrix as Coolmore throw shade, Mangan messes with my dinner plans and a new master of sales ring satire emerges
- 'This felt like the closest we have come to the seismic battles of the 1980s' - analysing the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale
- Humour and histrionics as I go through the looking glass at a Book 1 for the ages
- Group winners across hemispheres providing Go Racing with 'best of both worlds'