Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Jockey Club’s stallion book limits draw mixed response
Triple Crown winner Justify was tied as the most active stallion in North America in his first season at stud in 2019. Justify covered 252 mares, many of them top-level winners or producers, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. Justify’s first foals are arriving this season – but when his first sons enter stud some handful of years from now, the rules, competition, and market they face will be quite different.
The Jockey Club board of stewards announced May 7 that it has adopted a rule limiting the number of mares allowed to be bred to an individual Thoroughbred stallion in North America annually. The rule puts a cap of 140 mares bred each year in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico for stallions born in 2020 or after. There will be no cap on stallions born before 2019.
By phrasing the rule as per calendar year rather than per breeding season, mares bred within North America but on Southern Hemisphere time later in the year will still count toward the cap. Some stud farms do open their breeding sheds in the fall to mares shipped in from the Southern Hemisphere for breedings on that time frame or to selected domestic mares whose owners don’t mind essentially losing a year of a horse’s racing career. The Jockey Club has no jurisdiction over stud books on other continents – meaning that mares covered elsewhere won’t count toward the limit and that shuttle stallions can still travel without violating the cap. The international market may be one big winner due to the cap, as stallion owners look to bolster revenue through robust Southern Hemisphere activity.
The Jockey Club first announced it was considering a rule limiting stallions’ books last September because of concern over “the narrowing of the diversity of the Thorough
bred gene pool,” an issue seemingly further borne out by the trend of a shrinking foal crop over the past decade. Perhaps not coincidentally, the number is the same that the Standardbred industry landed on when it put a cap on mares bred in 2009, in an effort to diversify its own gene pool.
“As a major breeder, I think it is 100 percent awesome and the right thing to do,” Carrie Brogden of Machmer Hall responded to the rule announcement on Twitter. “The legal precedent has already been set by the Standardbred industry.”
According to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred for the 2019 season, 44 stallions covered 140 mares or more in North America. All but three of those stand in Kentucky, representing 13 different farms. In addition to clustering at the same farms, some of the busiest stallions in the country did share genetic lines. Justify and his Ashford Stud stablemate Mendelssohn, who tied at the top of the list with 252 mares each, are both by the late Scat Daddy – a great-grandson of Storm Cat, who also was represented in the top 10 most active stallions by grandson Sharp Azteca. Following Justify and
Mendelssohn in a tie for third was Spendthrift Farm’s leading sire Into Mischief with 241 mares. Two of his sons, Goldencents and Practical Joke, also were in the top 10 for Spendthrift and Ashford, respectively.
The Jockey Club solicited feedback from breeders, owners, and others in the industry. Although the cap number is the same as initially proposed, the original rule would have phased in the cap depending on the year in which a stallion entered stud, rather than the stallion’s age.
The adopted rule, based on stallion’s date of birth, does not impact stallions currently at stud or prospective stallions currently racing. Thus, their stud fees, commercial sale values, and current syndication deals in the works should remain unaffected. The first crop of colts affected by the rule would be 4-year-olds in the 2024 breeding season. However, the effects of the rule could be seen earlier than that as buyers consider a colt’s residual value as a stallion prospect at the 2021 yearling sales.
Still, the cap’s implementation gives time to consider its implications – which may be especially important as the industry’s focus this year is on grappling with the economic issues caused by the coronavirus pandemic, such as the possibility of declines at the sales.
“The number is a compromise and gives plenty of lead time to implement,” wrote Craig Bernick, Glen Hill Farm’s president and chief operating officer. “Supply and demand will sort out stud fees.”
Although the final rule indicates that feedback was clearly taken following the initial proposal, others in the industry felt more perspectives could have been considered.
“Perhaps stud farms had some say, but mare owners are also impacted,” wrote Tanya Gunther, who, with her father, John, bred Justify at their Glennwood Farm in Kentucky. “It is hard to imagine a decision like this being made in this manner at this time while we struggle to address far more pertinent issues.”
The cap also is expected to create upward pressure on stud fees in classic supply-anddemand economics, a dynamic already seen with some top stallions whose farms have historically limited books as a matter of course. War Front has never covered a book larger than 111 mares at Claiborne Farm – the 111 coming in 2016 – and over the past three completed seasons he averaged 89.6 mares. With his runners succeeding on the track fueling demand to get into that limited book and to snatch one of his relatively few offspring in the sales ring, his stud fee has skyrocketed. War Front stands for an advertised fee of $250,000, making him the most expensive stallion on the continent.
“It’s one of those things that will definitely change how folks go about their business,” Mark Toothaker, sales manager at Spendthrift Farm, said at the time the rule was first proposed. “This will change everything. . . . There’s no question it will [put pressure on stallion fees]. The ones that are in demand will definitely see their fees go up.” Spendthrift has declined comment since the final rule was announced.
Josh Stevens, of Josh Stevens Bloodstock and of Small Batch Sales, also noted the ripple effect through stud fees and sales that will likely be seen in the coming years.
“I’ve heard from a few midupper level owners,” Stevens said on his Twitter account. “This game is hard enough to succeed [or] tread water in financially. Some recent changes made will force these clients to evaluate their spending at sales, on stud fees, etc . . . look at the whole picture.”