The Jockey Club Projects Dip in ’26 Foal Crop to 17,000

The Jockey Club is projecting a North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop of 17,000 in 2026. This represents 300 fewer foals than the 2025 foal crop estimate of 17,300.

The foal crop projection is computed by using Reports of Mares Bred received to date for the 2025 breeding season. RMBs are to be filed by August 1 of each breeding season.

This year, The Jockey Club has published preliminary statistics regarding mares reported bred by state/province through the current date for 2024, 2023, and 2022. These reports are updated daily and can be found here.

For the RMBs received through September 30, 2025, The Jockey Club reports that 740 stallions covered 24,681 mares in North America during 2025.

The Jockey Club estimates an additional 2,000 to 3,000 mares will be reported as bred during the 2025 breeding season.

Of the RMB reports received, 201 mares were part of the Mare Incentive Program, which waives registration fees for certain 2026 foals of mares that meet criteria defined by The Jockey Club. This initiative was announced in December 2024 to stimulate interest in mares that appear to have left production. The report of Mare Incentive Program mares is available to anyone with an Interactive Registration account and is filterable by 12 data elements, including sire, dam sire, age, money earned, and class of race achieved.

The following table shows the number of covering stallions and the number of mares bred over the past 10 years in North America as reported to The Jockey Club through September 30 of the breeding year.

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
No. of stallions	1,407	1,375	1,299	1,175	1,065	1,016	955	880	825	771	740
Mares Bred	34,122	33,318	31,569	29,973	28,551	27,602	27,189	26,744	26,202	25,301	24,681

RMB statistics, sortable by stallion, mares bred, or state, for all reported stallions in 2025 are available through the Fact Book section of The Jockey Club’s website.

Kentucky traditionally leads North America in Thoroughbred breeding activity. During 2025, Kentucky’s 189 reported stallions covered 16,373 mares, or 66.34% of all mares reported bred in North America. Data based on stallion location is available at bit.ly/narmb.

The following table shows a segmentation of the number of mares bred by stallion for 2025 as reported to The Jockey Club through September 30, 2025.

Mares Bred	1 – 49	50 – 99	100 – 149	150 – 199	200 – 250	>250
No. of Stallions	600	57	41	32	7	3

The following table shows the number of stallions that covered 200 or more mares and the number of mares bred by those stallions in North America as reported to The Jockey Club through September 30 of the breeding year. 

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Stallions covering ≥200 Mares	4	4	4	5	8	12	12	16	14	10	10
Mares bred by Stallions covering ≥200 Mares	850	879	883	1,124	1,840	2,719	2,598	3,463	3,213	2,210	2,358

Tiz the Law   had the highest number of mare’s bred in 2025 with 274 followed by Arabian Knight   (273), Practical Joke   (263), Justify   (244), Charge It   (235), Domestic Product   (224), Gun Runner   (218), Not This Time   (214), Vekoma   (211), National Treasure   (202).

In addition, Report of Mares Bred information on stallions that bred mares in North America is available through report 36P or a subscription service at equineline.com/ReportOfMaresBred.

Stallion owners who have not returned their RMBs for the 2025 breeding season are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. Interactive Registration, which enables registered users to perform virtually all registration-related activities over the Internet, is the most efficient means of submitting RMBs and is available at registry.jockeyclub.com.

The 2024 breeding statistics, which include data for Live Foal Reports for the 2025 foaling season, will be released later this month.

 

This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.