Justify and Mendelssohn the busiest US sires as Jockey Club releases 2019 stats

The American Jockey Club released the Report of Mares Bred (RMB) statistics on Thursday for the 2019 North American breeding season. Based on RMBs received through October 16, 1,134 stallions covered 29,218 mares in the United States and Canada.

The Jockey Club estimates an additional 2,500 to 3,500 mares will be reported as bred during the 2019 breeding season.

The number of stallions declined 6.6 per cent from the 1,214 reported at this time in 2018, and the number of mares bred decreased 3.5 per cent from the 30,274 reported last year.

Consistent with prior years' reporting of stallions by book size, the number of stallions covering 125 or more mares increased from 62 in 2018 to 65 in 2019.

Further book size analysis shows a 6.7 per cent increase in the number of mares bred to stallions with a book size of 125 or more in 2019 when compared with 2018 as reported at this time last year.

There was a 9.1 per cent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book size 100-124, a 9.1 per cent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book size of 75-99, a 16.7 per cent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book size of 50-74, a 12.4 per cent decrease in mares bred to stallions with a book size of 25-49, and a one per cent increase in mares bred to stallions with a book size of fewer than 25.

The percentage of broodmares covered by stallions serving 125 or more mares increased from 31.9 per cent in 2018 to 35.3 per cent in 2019. From 2015-17, this percentage remained fairly constant at approximately 29 per cent, up from 20.5 per cent in 2014.

The proportion of stallions with book sizes of 125 or more mares grew from 5.1 per cent in 2018 to 5.7 per cent in 2019. It had grown from 3.1 per cent in 2014 to 4.5 per cent from 2015-17.

RMB statistics for all reported stallions in 2019 are available through the Fact Book section of The Jockey Club's website at jockeyclub.com.

Justify and Mendelssohn, both sons of Scat Daddy, led all stallions with 252 mares bred by each in 2019. Rounding out the top five by number of RMBs were Into Mischief (241), Uncle Mo (241), and Goldencents (239).

Kentucky traditionally leads North America in Thoroughbred breeding activity. In 2019, Kentucky's 220 reported stallions covered 17,123 mares, or 58.6 per cent of all of the mares reported bred in North America.

The number of mares bred to Kentucky stallions decreased 1.1 per cent compared with the 17,322 reported at this time last year.

Of the top 10 states and provinces by number of mares reported bred in 2019, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma stallions covered more mares in 2019 than in 2018, as reported at this time last year.

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