Key Race

Last week we previewed North American and European sires who went to stud in 2011, had their first foals in 2012, their first yearlings in 2013, and have their first 2-year-olds this year. In the context of evaluating stallion prospects, horses go to stud with their achievements fresh in breeders’ minds. Breeders are evaluating the horses’ race records, pedigrees, conformation, the farm at which they’re standing, stud fee, etc. Then, the following autumn they make their debuts in the marketplace, as their first mares in foal come up at auction. Cue Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), whose 14 mares in foal in the 2013-14 Mixed Sale season (which has just finished, with Goffs last week, though in Frankel’s case they were all sold in 2013) averaged $1,497,869, according to TDN’s Instatistics. I think we can call that ‘nearly $1.5-million’. In most cases, though not Frankel’s, the prices of the first mares in foal to a stallion tell us more about the class of mare bred to the stallion than they tell us about the stallion himself.

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