Breedings in 2020 have resulted in 19,021 live foals of 2021 thus far being reported to The Jockey Club (TJC) on Live Foal Reports, according to the annual Report of Mares Bred (RMB), which was released Friday by TJC. The number of live foals reported to date is expected to be 85-90% complete. The reporting of live foals of 2021 is down 3.3% from last year at this time when TJC had received reports for 19,677 live foals of 2020.
TJC also received 2,195 No Foal Reports for the 2021 foaling season. When all the numbers are in, the 2021 registered foal crop is projected to reach 19,200.
In total, 1,447 stallions covered 29,699 mares in North America during 2020, according to statistics compiled through Oct. 4, 2021. The number of stallions declined 6.8% from the 1,552 reported for 2019 at this time last year, while the number of mares bred declined 4.8% from the 31,198 reported for the same time period.
As per usual, Kentucky-based stallions dominated, taking down the first 16 places in the standings with 16,485 total mares bred in 2020 (212 individual stallions) and 11,535 live foals in 2021 reported to date. Those numbers represent a 2.7% decrease from the same period last year. Kentucky-based stallions accounted for 55.5% of the mares reported bred in North America in 2020 and 60.6% of the live foals reported for 2021. The number of mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions in 2020 decreased 4.4% compared to the 17,240 reported for 2019 at this time last year.
Among the 10 states and provinces with the most mares covered in 2020, only Maryland, Ontario, and New Mexico produced more live foals in 2021 than in 2020.
For the second out of three years, the Coolmore stallion Uncle Mo led all sires in 2020 in terms of mares bred. Florida stallion Khozan was the leader among non-Kentucky sires and was bred to 187 mares. The breeding figures come 17 months after TJC announced it would be instituting a rule that prohibited any horse born in 2020 or later from being bred to more than 140 mares. Forty-four stallions exceeded that number this year.
State-by-state breakdown:
State '20 Mares Bred '20 LF '21 LF % change
Kentucky 16,485 11,851 11,535 -2.7%
California 1,877 1,390 1,253 -9.9%
Florida 1,811 1,156 1,002 -13.3%
New York 1,032 652 649 -0.5%
Louisiana 1,101 647 631 -2.5%
Maryland 832 506 524 3.6%
Pennsylvania 793 510 449 -12%
Ontario 594 350 359 2.6%
New Mexico 637 313 326 4.2%
Oklahoma 576 342 271 -20.8%
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