Uncle Mo Back on Top with 2020 Mares Bred

[Wandering Eyes]

For the second out of three years, the Coolmore stallion Uncle Mo led all sires in 2020 in terms of mares bred. According to the annual Report of Mares Bred (RMB), which was released Friday by The Jockey Club (TJC), Uncle Mo was bred to 262 mares in 2020, 12 more than Into Mischief.

The breeding numbers came during a year in which Uncle Mo was among the most dominant stallions in the sport. He had three Grade I wins in 2020 and 14 graded stakes winners, the most among any stallion. His top horses this year have been the Grade I winners Yaupon and Mo Forza, a top contender for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

He also remains popular at the sales, where two of his offspring have sold for more than $1 million, including a colt out of Dame Dorothy who sold at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale for $1.6 million.

The Spendthrift superstar stallion Into Mischief was second, having been bred to 250 mares. He was the leading sire in the mares bred category in 2017 and 2018.

The top five was rounded out by Constitution (244), Mendelssohn (242) and Vino Rosso (238). Mitole (230) was next followed by Justify (222), Audible (221), Omaha Beach (215) and Munnings (211).

In total, 1,447 stallions covered 29,699 mares in North America during 2020, according to statistics compiled through Oct. 4, 2021. These breedings have resulted in 19,021 live foals of 2021 being reported to TJC on Live Foal Reports.

The Jockey Club's press release says they estimate that the number of live foals reported so far is 85-90% complete. The reporting of live foals of 2021 is down 3.3% from last year at this time when TJC had received reports for 19,677 live foals of 2020.

In addition to the 19,021 live foals of 2021 reported through Oct. 4, TJC also received 2,195 No Foal Reports for the 2021 foaling season. Ultimately, the 2021 registered foal crop is projected to reach 19,200.

The number of stallions declined 6.8% from the 1,552 reported for 2019 at this time last year, while the number of mares bred declined 4.8% from the 31,198 reported for 2019.

The numbers showed that breeders have an appetite for horses in all sorts of price ranges. While Into Mischief's stud fee is now set at $250,000 and Uncle Mo goes for $175,000, value sires like Mitole ($15,000) and Vino Rosso ($20,000) also made their way into the top 10.

As has been the case for the last several years, the top breeding farms continue to dominate. Spendthrift and Coolmore each had four horses in the top 10. WinStar accounted for the other two. The closest any other farm came to cracking the top 10 was Three Chimneys, whose Palace Malice was 11th with 207 mares bred.

The breeding figures come 17 months after TJC announced it would be instituting a rule that prohibited any horse born in 2020 or later from being bred to more than 140 mares. Forty-four stallions exceeded that number this year.

As is always the case, Kentucky-based stallions dominated, taking down the first 16 places in the standings. Florida stallion Khozan was the best among non-Kentucky sires and was bred to 187 mares.

With its stallions having been bred to 1,877 mares, California was the most popular breeding state outside of Kentucky. Florida was  next with 1,811.

In terms of individual state RMB leaders beyond Kentucky and Florida, the following stallions topped the covers list for their respective states or provinces:

Top stallions by state:

California: Stay Thirsty (109)
Louisiana: Star Guitar (68)
Maryland: Golden Lad (103)
New York: Solomini (123)
Ontario: Souper Speedy (80)
Pennsylvania: Hoppertunity (107)

State-by-state breakdown:

Stallion                  '20 Mares Bred              '20 LF            '21 LF     % change

Kentucky                    16,485                      11,851          11,535      -2.7%
California                     1,877                        1,390            1,253     -9.9%
Florida                         1,811                         1,156           1,002     -13.3%
New York                     1,032                          652               649       -0.5%
Louisiana                     1,101                          647               631       -2.5%
Maryland                        832                          506               524        3.6%
Pennsylvania                  793                          510               449      -12.0%
Ontario                            594                          350               359        2.6%
New Mexico                    637                          313               326        4.2%
Oklahoma                       576                          342               271        -20.8%

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