As in past years, The Jockey Club estimates that the reporting of live foals, at this point in time, is approximately 90 percent complete. The reporting of live foals of 2009 is down 8.2% from last year at this time when The Jockey Club had received reports for 34,561 live foals of 2008.

“As we announced last month, the North American registered foal crop projection for 2009 has been revised downward to 34,000 and the live foal returns to date reflect that,” said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s vice president of registration services. “Although breeding activity has been in decline for several years, the rate of decline accelerated in both the 2008 and 2009 breeding seasons so we will see fewer live foals born next year as well.”

The 2009 registered foal crop projection of 34,000 takes into account that not all live foals become registered. In addition to the 31,727 live foals of 2009 reported through Sept. 9, The Jockey Club had also received 6,755 No Foal Reports for the 2009 foaling season.

The number of stallions declined 5.5 percent from the 3,638 reported for 2007 at this time last year, while the number of mares bred decreased 7.1 percent from the 61,262 reported for 2007.

The 2008 breeding statistics are available alphabetically by stallion name through the Publications and Resources link on The Jockey Club homepage at jockeyclub.com.

Iuliano emphasized that the breeding statistics are not a measurement of the live foals born in each state or province, but rather a count of state/province-sired live foals, regardless of where the foals were born. He also stressed that the statistics should not be taken to represent the fertility record of any one stallion.

Kentucky annually leads all states and provinces in terms of Thoroughbred breeding activity. Kentucky-based stallions accounted for 38.0 percent of the mares reported bred in North America in 2008 and 44.9 percent of the live foals reported for 2009.

The 21,620 mares reported bred to 346 Kentucky stallions in 2008 have produced 14,257 live foals, a 5.2 percent decrease on the 15,040 Kentucky-sired live foals of 2008 reported at this time last year. The number of mares reported bred to Kentucky stallions in 2008 declined 1.4 percent against the 21,938 reported for 2007 at this time last year.

Among the 11 states and provinces in which stallions covered at least 1,000 mares in 2008, only Pennsylvania produced more state/province-sired live foals in 2009 than in 2008 as reported at this time last year. The 11 states and provinces, ranked by number of state/province-sired live foals of 2009 reported through Sept. 9, are:

For further details, please the Jockey Club's website, www.jockeyclub.com