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Weatherbys Stallion Scene: Cover Story
The Weatherbys Return of Mares reveals the ups and downs in the covering sheds
THIS SPRING 13 stallions covered over 200 mares, seven of whom come under the Flat banner, and all of whom are based in Ireland.
This was a drop from the 20 and 19 stallions, who reached such figures in 2023 and 2022.
Coolmore led the way with Order Of St George’s 311, Calyx at 273 and Santiago at 251. Tally-Ho Stud’s Good Guess at 250 was the stallion standing outside of Fethard to see the highest number of mares.
The busiest stallion in the UK in 2024 was Frankel, who was visited by 192 mares.
In terms of quality, 19 stallions in Britain and Ireland covered 50 or more black-type mares in 2024 and just two of those reached triple figures with Frankel heading the list on 145 (down from 153 in 2023) and Wootton Bassett adding 18 more to his 2023 total of 100.
Too Darn Hot, on the strength of his exciting 2023 results on the racecourse, comfortably had the biggest percentage increase of black-type mares in 2024 which rose 88 per cent from 44 covered last year to 83 in 2024.
Not only did Frankel and Wootton Bassett cover the most amount of black-type mares, but they also filled the same position on number of Group-winning mares – the former saw 88 and Wootton Bassett covered 53.
Dubawi, for so long prominent at the head of covering statistics, saw his number of black-type mares dip beneath 100 and he was down number-wise from 104 in 2023 to 83 this spring.
Amongst the big movers was the Irish National Stud’s young sire Phoenix Of Spain whose book more than doubled both in terms of the number of mares covered year-on-year from 90 in 2023 to 217 in 2024, while the quality improved with the number of black-type mares also increasing from 15 last year to 32 this spring.
Young sires popular
Of the first-season sires of 2024, Chaldean saw 173 mares and the Juddmonte sire is top of the list by the number of black-type mares covered (63), the only first-season sire to see over 50 in that category. He also saw 16 Group-winning mares.
Shane Horan, nominations manager at Juddmonte reports: “There was an excess of 320 applications for Chaldean with the final book consisting of 173 mares made up many notable performers, producers, and very well related mares.
“In fact, by the close of the season, his book featured an impressive 99 black-type performers and producers.
“In addition to that, there were 15 daughters of Group 1 winners and another 38 sisters to Group 1 winners.”
Numerically, Tally-Ho’s Good Guess was streets ahead of all new sires with a bumper total of 250 mares covered.
Shaquille, the July Cup winner of 2023, is the first debut 2024 stallion away from the large established farms of Coolmore, Darley and Tally-Ho to have seen a three-figure book, the Dullingham Stud-based sire was visited by over 150 mares.
Stud manager Ollie Fowlston said: “We were delighted with Shaquille’s first book of mares. He covered 158 mares and got 90 per cent in foal, which is exceptional.
“His first book included the dams of Dramatised, 20 stakeswinning mares including the Norfolk Stakes-winning Shang Shang Shang, 57 dams of black-type horses and 117 sisters to stakes winners.
“We are excited about seeing his first crop and are confident breeders will not be disappointed.”
It is fair to say that Whitsbury Manor Stud has done well in establishing stallions over the last few years and Dragon Symbol, who was first past the post in the Commonwealth Cup but was disqualified but still collected four Group 1 placings, stood his first season for the Hampshire farm in 2024.
He has been given every chance of following in the footsteps of Havana Grey and Sergei Prokofiev covering 140 mares in his first season.
Joe Callan, the farm’s head of bloodstock and sales, said: “We were delighted with Dragon Symbol’s first book of mares – he covered an exciting full book which included 25 stakes-winning or producing mares such as Killermont Street, the dam of Cold Case, Harryana To, the dam of Diligent Harry and Harry Three, and Favourite Girl, who is the dam of Adaay In Devon.”
The Weatherbys Return of Mares 2024 shows a decrease across-the-board of the number of registered foals, broodmares and stallions compared to published figures of 2023.
The live foals totalled 12,578 (13,438 in 2023), and of these, 4,074 are registered in Britain (4,356 in 2023) and 8,504 (9,082 in 2023) in Ireland.
This is a decrease of 860 foals compared to an increase of 163 foals from 2022 to 2023.
The number of stallions decreased by 10 in Britain from 113 to 103 and in Ireland by 19, from 184 to 165 in 2024.
