Inside Kentucky’s Stallion Portfolios

I’d been anxiously awaiting The Jockey Club’s annual Report of Mares Bred for months. As a breeder, and as a buyer and seller at the November sales, I treat it as a direct input to our selection process and our cover strategy. Beyond that, it’s one of the clearest annual indicators of the industry’s health.

The stallion farms themselves fascinate me, especially the big operations that quietly influence so much of the industry. They compete for horses and mares, cooperate on deals, and do a lot of wheeling and dealing whose details stay within a relatively small circle of insiders. Most of us see the announcements, the rosters and the advertised fees. The arrangements behind them are much harder to see.

The mares-bred report is one of the most telling public disclosures we get each year. Put those books alongside advertised fees and a few years of history, and we start to see which horses are carrying each farm, how the business is changing, and how much depends on the next successful sire.

Spendthrift’s Upper Tier Is Getting Deeper

Vekoma, Omaha Beach and Yaupon have given Spendthrift another group of horses operating at Into Mischief’s scale. At their 2026 advertised fees, the three have a combined list-price value of $49.4 million, slightly above Into Mischief’s $48.5 million. A year earlier, their combined figure was $18.8 million.

For these comparisons, I multiply each stallion’s advertised breeding-season fee by his reported covers. Advertised fees are where the negotiation starts. In the small number of transactions we’ve been part of, seasons have traded both below and above the printed fee, with the largest premiums attached to horses whose books were already full.

Actual farm receipts remain private, and live-foal terms, breeding rights, retained mares and ownership shares further affect what is collected. List-price value lets us examine published pricing against reported breeding activity. It also helps separate a farm attracting more mares from one attracting mares at a much higher price.

Figure 1 · Spendthrift’s new upper tier

Vekoma, Omaha Beach and Yaupon now match Into Mischief at list price

Show the data

Stallion	2025 mares	2026 mares	2025 fee	2026 fee	2025 list-price value	2026 list-price value
Vekoma	211	224	$35,000	$100,000	$7,385,000	$22,400,000
Omaha Beach	184	189	$35,000	$75,000	$6,440,000	$14,175,000
Yaupon	198	214	$25,000	$60,000	$4,950,000	$12,840,000
Vekoma, Omaha Beach and Yaupon	593	627			$18,775,000	$49,415,000
Into Mischief	176	194	$250,000	$250,000	$44,000,000	$48,500,000

Vekoma’s fee nearly tripled, Omaha Beach’s more than doubled, and Yaupon’s rose 140%. All three attracted larger reported books. Their combined covers increased just 5.7%, while list-price value rose from $18.775 million to $49.415 million, an increase of $30.640 million, or 163.2%.

The contribution is substantial in the context of the rest of Spendthrift’s roster. Its 27 returning stallions with public fees in both years gained $25.373 million in list-price value. Those three alone added $30.640 million, offsetting a combined $5.268 million decline among the other 24.

Spendthrift’s total reported covers were essentially flat, moving from 3,298 to 3,316 after accounting for newcomers and departures. Its total known-fee list-price value rose 31.6%, from $113.89 million to $149.87 million. Returning stallions collectively covered 10.5% fewer mares; successful horses moving up the price scale changed the result for the whole roster.

That leaves Spendthrift with more options as Into Mischief ages. His book still carries nearly a third of the farm’s list-price value, but Vekoma, Omaha Beach and Yaupon together now contribute a similar amount. The farm has three younger horses supporting higher advertised fees and large books, alongside the stallion who has anchored its recent success.

Ashford’s Place in Coolmore’s Global Business

Ashford is one important piece of Coolmore’s global empire. Its Kentucky roster sits alongside operations in Ireland and Australia, with international partnerships extending the markets available to individual stallions. A horse’s departure from Kentucky can therefore be part of a much larger breeding strategy.

The Kentucky comparison with Spendthrift shows different distributions of breeding activity.

Ashford’s eleven returning stallions were essentially flat at 1,952 reported covers in 2025 and 1,981 in 2026. Their list-price value fell by roughly a quarter, with Justify accounting for much of the reduction: 244 mares at $250,000 became 205 at $200,000, a $20 million decline in that calculation. Historical fee revisions affect the precise farm-wide percentage, but the direction is consistent across the documented alternatives.

Sierra Leone, Citizen Bull and Fierceness supplied the replacement business. Their first books totaled 750 mares and $43.52 million in list-price value, slightly exceeding Justify’s $41 million. The three newcomers accounted for 27.5% of Ashford’s covers before producing their first foals.

American Pharoah illustrates the international side of that renewal. He covered 168 mares in Kentucky in the archived 2025 report, then 218 in Japan during 2026 at the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association’s Shizunai Stallion Station. Coolmore and the JBBA extended the arrangement through another breeding season, with a return to Kentucky still planned. Those 218 Japanese covers are not counted in Ashford’s Kentucky totals.

I find that more informative than simply recording him among Ashford’s departures. The Kentucky book disappeared from the farm’s return, while the horse found a larger group of mares in another market. We can see the commercial use of the horse continuing, even though the ownership and income-sharing arrangements remain private.

For Spendthrift, the largest improvement in this year’s Kentucky figures came from successful returning sires commanding higher fees. At Ashford, three launches contributed immediate scale while its international relationships provided another route for an established horse. Those are different ways of renewing a roster, and the Kentucky census captures only part of Coolmore’s activity.

The Horses Carrying the Other Farms

A long roster can still depend heavily on a few horses. Spendthrift’s three largest contributors account for 56.8% of its list-price value, almost identical to the 55.9% held by Ashford’s leading three. Across the other farms, the concentration can be much greater.

Figure 2 · One-horse farms

At three farms, a single stallion carries more than 90% of list-price value

Show the data

Farm	Reporting sires	2026 mares	List-price value	Largest contributor	His share
Spendthrift	30	3,316	$149.870M	Into Mischief	32.4%
Ashford	14	2,731	$142.055M	Justify	28.9%
Lane’s End	17	1,703	$80.365M	Flightline	30.6%
Darley	13	1,468	$65.338M	Nyquist	47.9%
WinStar	15	1,315	$47.093M	Constitution	43.0%
Gainesway	11	1,158	$40.998M	McKinzie	26.9%
Hill ’n’ Dale	10	1,007	$51.630M	Curlin	34.9%
Airdrie	11	931	$17.820M	Girvin	37.5%
Taylor Made	9	799	$62.456M	Not This Time	92.1%
Three Chimneys	5	470	$65.345M	Gun Runner	95.6%
Mill Ridge	3	219	$11.155M	Oscar Performance	97.4%

Gun Runner represents 95.6% of Three Chimneys’ list-price value across five reporting stallions. Not This Time accounts for 92.1% at Taylor Made, although his 230 mares represent only 28.8% of the farm’s covers. A new horse can attract a respectable book and still contribute a small fraction of what either flagship represents at $250,000.

Airdrie has faced the replacement problem directly. Girvin covered 223 mares before his sudden death on August 8, supplying 24.0% of the farm’s covers and 37.5% of its list-price value in his final season. Those matings remain in the 2026 figures, while Airdrie heads into the next breeding season with a different roster to offer mare owners.

Other farms already have a large share of their business with recent arrivals. WinStar’s three newcomers supplied 35.8% of its covers. Claiborne’s Mindframe and Johannes supplied 51.1%. At Gainesway, five stallions in their first or second seasons accounted for 52.3%.

These percentages concern the standing stallion rosters. The farms’ other businesses, partners and ownership interests would be needed to assess their overall financial exposure. As a breeder, I’m interested in how much of the next generation is already receiving support and what the farm intends to do for those horses once their opening seasons are behind them.

The Young Sires Before Their First Runners

Domestic Product and National Treasure are among the horses whose first foals arrived this year. Gunite is one crop ahead, with his first yearlings selling in 2026. Both stages interest me because breeders are making consequential decisions while the evidence still consists largely of the stallion, his mares and his young stock.

The familiar second-season decline was widespread among the 2025 entrants. The 23 matched stallions in our Kentucky panel went from 3,212 opening-season covers to 1,813 this year, a decline of 43.6%. Twenty-two had smaller books. Senor Buscador was the exception, increasing from 31 to 56.

Senor Buscador’s increase came at an unchanged fee and from a modest opening book. His stud announcement arrived on January 24, 2025, giving him a later start in the booking cycle than the autumn retirees. I would keep that timing in mind before treating his percentage increase as evidence of a comparable change in commercial stature.

Gunite and Up to the Mark show how support can return while the first runners are still ahead. Their books increased by 73 and 64 mares, respectively. Gunite attracted those mares at a lower advertised fee; Up to the Mark held his price.

Their first Keeneland September yearlings later gave buyers and breeders more evidence to work with. In our sale analysis, Gunite’s median was $130,000 and Up to the Mark’s was $120,000. Those results followed the breeding decisions recorded here, so I read them as another stage in the assessment of the horses, rather than an explanation for bookings made months earlier.

For the first-foal group, this November will provide that next public test. The opening books are already reflected in the weanlings offered for sale, while the smaller second books tell us how much breeder support remained as another class of stallions arrived.

Last Year’s Freshman Runners

The horses with their first runners in 2025 are at a different point in the process. Breeders entered the 2026 season with a year of juvenile racing to consider, and farms had begun adjusting prices around that evidence. The resulting books show very different commercial outcomes.

Yaupon maintained a large book at a sharply higher price. Maxfield’s reported volume was essentially unchanged after a 25% fee increase, and Rock Your World attracted more mares at a higher fee. Each gave its farm a stronger list-price result from an existing stallion.

Essential Quality’s larger book tells a different story. He attracted 35 additional mares after his advertised fee was halved. His list-price value consequently fell 36.2%, from $6.35 million to $4.05 million, even as his book grew 27.6%. Charlatan had both a lower fee and a smaller reported book.

I pay attention to those combinations when reading a list of rising book counts. More mares at a higher price, more mares at a lower price, and a steady book after repricing represent different positions in the market. A lower fee can give a horse more opportunities to establish himself, while the farm accepts a smaller list-price contribution during that process.

The first runners are also only the beginning of the evidence. The commercial judgment made after one juvenile season will be revisited as those horses develop, and the book filled this spring records the decisions breeders made with the information available then.

The Biggest Changes in Kentucky Stallion Books

I also wanted to see which individual stallions gained or lost the most support. For this comparison, I matched horses reported as standing in Kentucky in both 2025 and 2026, excluding stallions that relocated to or from other states.

The rankings use the absolute change in mares bred, with the percentage alongside it to show how much the starting book matters.

Figure 3 · Kentucky’s biggest movers

Corniche added the most mares and Independence Hall lost the most

Show the data

Stallion	Farm	2025 mares	2026 mares	Change	% change
Corniche	Ashford	106	216	+110	+103.8%
Girvin	Airdrie	127	223	+96	+75.6%
Honor A. P.	Lane’s End	19	110	+91	+478.9%
Drain the Clock	Gainesway	139	227	+88	+63.3%
Gunite	Ashford	163	236	+73	+44.8%
Up to the Mark	Lane’s End	133	197	+64	+48.1%
Instagrand	Taylor Made	12	65	+53	+441.7%
Flightline	Lane’s End	145	197	+52	+35.9%
Essential Quality	Darley	127	162	+35	+27.6%
Gun Runner	Three Chimneys	218	250	+32	+14.7%
Independence Hall	WinStar	155	28	−127	−81.9%
Charge It	Gainesway	235	113	−122	−51.9%
Newgate	Three Chimneys	180	60	−120	−66.7%
Arabian Knight	Hill ’n’ Dale	273	161	−112	−41.0%
Charlatan	Hill ’n’ Dale	191	80	−111	−58.1%
Prince of Monaco	Claiborne	176	76	−100	−56.8%
Timberlake	WinStar	161	65	−96	−59.6%
Domestic Product	Ashford	224	137	−87	−38.8%
Frosted	Darley	114	27	−87	−76.3%
Seize the Grey	Gainesway	196	109	−87	−44.4%

Corniche led Kentucky’s gainers, more than doubling his book to 216 mares. Girvin followed with 96 additional covers in what would become his final breeding season. Gunite, Drain the Clock and Up to the Mark also attracted considerably more support as their early crops began giving breeders more evidence to work with.

Honor A. P. and Instagrand had the largest percentage gains, although both came off small books. Gun Runner’s increase is worth noting for a different reason: another 32 mares at an advertised $250,000 adds $8 million in list-price value at an unchanged fee.

The declines include several horses still early in their stud careers. Charge It, Arabian Knight, Prince of Monaco, Timberlake and Domestic Product all lost considerable support before their first runners had an opportunity to establish their reputations. At the other end of the experience spectrum, Frosted’s 76.3% decline shows how sharply demand can also fall for an established sire.

These changes are useful starting points for evaluating individual horses. I go back to the fees, the quality of mares bred, the age of the first crop and any changes in availability before deciding what a larger or smaller book tells me about a stallion’s commercial prospects.

What I Take Into November

The report is most useful to me when it changes how I evaluate a specific mare or young horse. A large book suggests potential supply, a sustained book at a higher fee suggests a stronger commercial position, and a sharp decline prompts questions about the support remaining behind the stallion.

Yaupon provides an immediate example. Spendthrift has announced a $100,000 fee for 2027, up from $60,000 this year. A mare carrying his 2027 foal offers an existing pregnancy by a horse whose next advertised season will cost considerably more. That could support demand in November, although I still need to establish how much of the increase is already reflected in the mare’s asking price.

For the first weanlings by the 2025 stallion class, I’ve also been looking at the quality of their opening books. BloodHorse’s Quality of Mares Bred report provides two useful measures: Comparable Index (CI), reflecting the mares’ quality as producers, and Class Performance Index (CPI), reflecting their own racing quality.

National Treasure had the smallest opening book among these four, yet attracted the highest-quality mares on both measures. In fact, his CI and CPI led the entire 2025 first-season stallion class. Arabian Knight also received a strong group of mares, while Domestic Product and Charge It had substantially lower indices despite covering more mares than National Treasure.

That changes how I think about their first crops. Book size tells me how much supply could be coming. Mare quality tells me something about the opportunities each stallion received. The individual weanling’s physical, dam’s page and produce record, and the price being asked will determine how much value I place on that background.

I also want to understand which portion of a stallion’s opening book actually reaches the November sales. The mares represented in the catalog may differ considerably from the full group bred to him, particularly when farms and major breeders retain their better prospects.

Gunite and Up to the Mark offer more evidence to work with. Their November weanlings arrive after the market has evaluated their first major yearling offerings, and their larger 2026 books indicate additional potential supply behind them. I’m interested in whether the quality of their mares is improving alongside the number being bred.

The 2026 matings will produce the 2027 foal crop, yearlings in 2028 and two-year-olds in 2029. The covering figures give us an early view of how opportunities will be distributed among sires, while mare quality adds another dimension to assessing those future crops.

Contract terms belong in the same buying decision. Taylor Made’s State-Bred Initiative, for example, makes qualifying seasons eligible for a fee waiver, but selling the mare in foal voids qualification and makes the full contracted fee due before sale. That matters to a breeder planning a November sale rather than retaining the mare through foaling.

When considering a young stallion, I ask about the farm’s own mare support in his second and third seasons. I want to know which mares are staying with him, what they have produced, and how the farm plans to support him while his runners develop. With a horse whose book has contracted, I ask whether the remaining support includes the producers most likely to give him a fair opportunity, and how the terms of my season fit what we intend to do with the mare and foal.

Methodology. The panel covers 171 stallions at seventeen Kentucky farms, 16,592 of the state’s 16,677 reported covers. Covers come from The Jockey Club’s preliminary reports through September 30, 2025, preserved in an archived BloodHorse table, and October 1, 2026, with stallions matched by name. List-price value is covers multiplied by advertised fee, with private fees excluded; it does not capture discounts, premiums, conditional-fee programs or seasons that pay the farm nothing. Using Practical Joke’s revised $100,000 fee for 2025, Ashford’s returning-roster decline is 24.2% to 24.7% across Golden Pal’s two documented fees (20.1% at Practical Joke’s initial $75,000). Farm means 2026 standing location; ownership may be shared. Sources: The Jockey Club (Report of Mares Bred), Horse Racing Nation (2026 report), Thoroughbred Daily News (2025 report, Coolmore America 2026 fees), BloodHorse (2025 Quality of Mares Bred), Paulick Report (Spendthrift 2025 adjustments, Spendthrift 2026 fees), Spendthrift (2025 fees, National Treasure), Coolmore (Citizen Bull, Gunite, Domestic Product, American Pharoah), Racing Post (American Pharoah in Japan, Practical Joke fee history), TrueNicks (Ashford 2025 fees, Coolmore newcomers, American Pharoah 2027, Spendthrift 2027 fees, National Treasure, Senor Buscador, Three Chimneys, Lane’s End, Nyquist, WinStar, Hill ’n’ Dale, Mill Ridge, Claiborne, Girvin), Darley (2026 fees), Taylor Made (2026 fees, State-Bred Initiative), Gainesway.