Mare Cap

Star National Hunt sire Doctor Dino (Fr) will stand for an increased fee of €24,000 at Haras du Mesnil in 2025, the Jour de Galop reported on Saturday. He stood for €22,000 this term. It is a record covering fee for a French-based jumping stallion. The 22-year-old has sired numerous Grade 1 winners, among them 2024 Champion Hurdle hero State Man (Fr), Paddy's Rewards Club Chase winner Dinoblue (Fr) and French Grade 1 winner Master Dino (Fr). He is one of the leading stallions in the NH sale sphere, as...

In the face of an end run in the Kentucky legislature, The Jockey Club will rescind its 140 mare cap for stallions, the organization announced in a press release Thursday morning. "The Jockey Club announced today that it is rescinding the following italicized language in Rule 14C of The Jockey Club's Principal Rules and Requirements of the American Studbook that addresses limitations to the total number of mares bred per stallion: The total number of broodmares bred per individual stallion whose year of birth is 2020 or thereafter shall not exceed 140...

Lexington native Frank Penn raised both Thoroughbreds and tobacco for the better part of 50 years at Pennbrook Farm, his 300-acre spread out on Mt. Horeb Pike. Based on that experience, he has some words of caution for the bloodstock industry as it enters a new era of protectionism with The Jockey Club's recent rule change limiting to 140 the number of mares a stallion can cover, starting with foals of 2020. In short, Penn said, the Thoroughbred industry should read Kentucky's now-withered tobacco leaves to glean a lesson in...

The Jockey Club's unilateral decision to regulate the market by imposing a mare cap on the breeding industry during a period of time when the sport of horse racing has been left staggering breathlessly against the ropes following a series of jabs, crosses and uppercuts, intensifies my fears about the future of our industry. That The Jockey Club chose to deliver this edict amid a global health crisis that threatens to bring many small breeders and operators to their knees, delivers a telling body blow. On the topic of the...