Jockey Club reports 26,597 mares bred in North America in 2023

Golden Pal and Epicenter, new stablemates this year at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, were extremely popular in their respective first seasons at stud, ranking as the busiest stallions in North America as The Jockey Club released its Report of Mares Bred for the 2023 season.

Based on reports received through Oct. 18, The Jockey Club reports that 867 stallions covered 26,597 mares in North America during the 2023 breeding season. The official breed organization estimates an additional 2,500 to 3,500 mares will be reported as bred.

Last year at this time, it was reported that 925 stallions had covered 27,163 mares in North America, meaning this year's report is keeping to the trend of the contracting Thoroughbred population.

Kentucky traditionally leads North America in Thoroughbred breeding activity and unsurprisingly held on to that title. During 2023, Kentucky’s 199 reported stallions covered 16,953 mares, or 63.7 percent of all of the mares reported bred in North America. The number of mares bred to Kentucky stallions increased 1.6 percent compared with the 16,689 reported at this time last year.

Following Kentucky with the most mares bred in 2023 came California (1,593 mares), Florida (1,454), New York (1,085), Louisiana (789) Maryland (566), Ontario (543), Pennsylvania (363), West Virginia (363), and New Mexico (349) to round out the top 10 states or provinces by activity. Of those, only Kentucky, New York (11.5 percent increase), Ontario (2.5 percent increase), and West Virginia (19 percent increase) improved their numbers from 2022. Oklahoma and Indiana, which were among the 10 busiest states in 2022, dropped out of the top 10, with mares-bred decreased of 23.2 percent and 43.4 percent, respectively.

Two-time Breeders' Cup winner Golden Pal, by prominent young classic sire Uncle Mo, covered 293 mares in 2023, his first season at stud. Following him was an Ashford stablemate, Eclipse Award champion Epicenter. After an injury in last fall's Breeders' Cup Classic curtailed his racing career, the son of Not This Time recovered to cover 262 mares.

Ashford residents rounded out the top five, with Practical Joke covering 252 mares, first-season stallion Jack Christopher 247, and Uncle Mo 234.

Rounding out the top 10 stallions in North America were first-year stallion Olympiad (Gainesway) with 228, Charlatan (Spendthrift Farm) with 223, first-year Cyberknife (Spendthrift) with 223, Triple Crown winner Justify (Ashford) with 222, and Vekoma (Spendthrift) with 212. The busiest stallion outside of Kentucky was New York's Mind Control (Rockridge Stud) with 190.

As was previously reported, unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline was held to a book of 152 mares for his debut season at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky.

There were 14 stallions with a book size of 200 or more that covered a total of 3,213 mares in North America in 2023, which is 12.1 percent of all coverings reported. A total of 45 stallions had books of 150 or more and covered 8,588 mares, or 32.3 percent of all mares reported bred.

For comparison, the reports of October 2013 show that one stallion covered more than 200 mares in North America, and that 19 stallions covered 150 or more.

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