There are two important things to know about the mating of thoroughbred racehorses. The first is that the gestation period of mares in foal is essentially a year, about 11 to 12 months on average. The second is that all foals born in 2022 will turn one year old for racing purposes on the same date, January 1, 2023, no matter when they are actually born. Why these two facts are worth noting is that people who breed horses want their pregnant mares to drop their foals as close to January 1 as possible – but not before – in order to give them as much time as possible to develop before they begin racing careers. All these babies, called weanlings after they’ve grown for several months and no longer rely on their mothers for food, will be a year old for racing on that date. They will then be referred to as yearlings.
In plainer terms, if a foal is born in December, it still turns one year old on January 1, even though it may only be less than a month old in reality. Timing the foal’s birth is critical to horse racing, and so, considering that the gestation period is as my old trainer Andy used to say, “11 month, a week, and a day,” the middle of February – right around Valentine’s Day – is the earliest a breeder wants to send a mare to the stallion of their choice. Hopefully, if the timing is accurate, and the pregnancy goes without issues, the foal will be dropped the following February. The advantage in doing this is that this early birth will make the youngster more than three years old in actual months when the Kentucky Derby is run in the May of his (officially) three-year-old life. For many big-time breeders and owners, the Derby is just one of the reasons to be in this business. Obviously, foals born later in the year, like May or June, will not be a full three years old by the time the Derby is run.
This mating of mares to stallions is quite a process, and most breeders have devised their own methods of determining which mare goes to which stallion. This breeding decision involves many factors. The determination is mostly based on the recent racing and breeding success of the stud and the mare, but the past history of both and their lineage is given serious consideration, as well, and those lineages can go back several generations. And certainly, the stallion’s stud fee is a huge factor for breeders. Today’s leading stallions command tremendous sums for the opportunity to breed one’s mare to them: the leading sire today, Into Mischief, stands for $250,000 for a single cover, and even putting up a quarter million for one session might not be enough to get your mare in, since the stallion’s management only approves certain mares. This selectivity gives Into Mischief the best opportunity to continue to be successful and, thus, continue to stand for such a high price. After all, no one’s paying a quarter of a million dollars to breed their mare to a stallion who’s produced nothing but also-rans in his last three broods.
Other top 2022 sires include 2007 Preakness winner Curlin, the third-leading 2022 sire, who stands for $175,000, and Tapit, who was immediately retired to stud after winning the 2004 Wood Memorial and has not only been the leading sire three times since, but is the all-time leading sire based on his progeny’s earnings. A session with Tapit now costs $185,000, and it might well be worth it; In 2020, his progeny earned more than $20 million in purses. And there are others that stand for $100,000 or more: Uncle Mo, at $160,000; Quality Road, at $150,000; and Medaglia D’Oro at an even hundred thousand. This, again, is the price for one stand. To get some idea of the value of these stallions, in 2019 Into Mischief covered 174 mares at a price just below his current fee. You do the math.
(On second thought, I’ll do it for you: a shade under $43.5 million, which is what Into Mischief would get for 174 covers at his current rate.)
Breeding takes place from February through April or May, depending on the stallion and his desire to breed and overall health. Most leading sires cover over 150 mares a year, with the majority covering two mares a day, every day, although some do get a break every now and then. And some of these stallions also do double duty, by which I mean they are flown to South America, after putting in their work in our spring, to cover some mares in their spring. Some stallions prove unable to complete this exhausting work, but others like the travel and the chance to mate with some Southern ladies.
Most of these stallion operations give the owner of the mare a SAN guarantee. That means that the stallion fee is only paid when the foal “stands and nurses.” Under the terms of this guarantee, if the mare loses the foal during pregnancy, it dies after birth, or it is born with issues that causes it to be unable to stand and nurse, the fee is waived.
The “love” part of this process is going on today, as foals that were conceived in the spring of 2021 are now being born. Babies being foaled with expectations as high as the cost of their daddy’s stud fee are being welcomed into this world, accompanied by all the love and adoration afforded any young animal. In the past few years, approximately 19,000 foals have been born in the U.S. Many of them, naturally, cost their breeders a lot less than the six-figure fees of the top stallions, but these foals are met with as much joy and hope as any more expensive foal. Every breeder hopes that the mating they have chosen will lead to a successful and healthy foal. And it’s not as though spending a huge amount of money on stallion fees is any guarantee of success: most breeders who use low-cost stallions will point to horses that were not bred to the expensive stallions and were enormously successful on the track anyway. There are many fabulous horses who have been wonderful runners and were not bred to high priced stallions. To take just one recent example, the favorite to win this year’s Eclipse Award for Horse of The Year, Knicks Go, was bred to a stallion who stands for $10,000. Knicks Go, to this point, has earned well over $8 million.
Watching puppies or kittens – or, really, any animal – being born can’t help but be exciting and emotional. (For some personal evidence of this, please see the gallery below.) The same goes for thoroughbreds. There’s a lot of money to potentially be made, of course, but the love of these majestic animals is a large part of the breeding business. Some foals go on to become champions, while others simply provide their owners with the joy of seeing their babies race, and those that never make it to the track become beloved family members in spite of their inability to race. The world of breeding is fraught with all the things that can befall any horse, but hope and expectations for the future are always present. And isn’t hope for the future what life is about for all of us?
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”85″ gal_title=”Bernie 02-13″]
