Weatherbys has published the 58th edition of the Bloodstock Sales Review — a must-have resource for those purchasing horses in all sections of the market, as well as breeders putting together their mating plans, whether Flat or National Hunt.
The book provides a complete analysis of European bloodstock sales in 2022 for all foals, yearlings and older horses in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. It also includes foals and yearlings either foaled in Europe or by European-based sires at the major auctions in North America and Japan.
Furthermore, the Bloodstock Sales Review features comprehensive overviews of the trading year for Tattersalls, Goffs, Tattersalls Ireland and Arqana, as well as tables of the leading sires of 2022 by yearling average, lists of the year’s dearest yearlings and foals, and a roll of top historical auction prices.
To mark the publication of the book, we compiled a top ten of the most profitable British and Irish-based yearling sires of last year.
We have worked out each sires’ profitability index by dividing their 2022 yearling average by their covering fee of 2020, when the offspring in question were conceived.
In first place...
MEHMAS
2022 yearling ave: 70,481gns/€88,066
2020 covering fee: €7,500
Profitability index: 11.74
Mehmas has quickly established himself as the go-to sire for fast, early horses with a touch of class, since obliterating the record for number of first-crop two-year-old winners in 2020, when he clocked 56 in total, including unbeaten Middle Park Stakes hero Supremacy and Gimcrack winner Minzaal.
After Minzaal won the Haydock Sprint Cup last year and the likes of Going Global, Lusail, Malavath and Persian Force also flew the flag for him throughout 2022, his yearlings – the last bred at a low fee before his freshman heroics – sold like hot cakes. He had 72 lots make an average of 70,481gns/€88,066, led by a half-sister to Norfolk Stakes runner-up Walbank knocked down to Richard Knight for 450,000gns.
This is the second year that Mehmas has topped this chart, and it will be fascinating to see if he can maintain his position in 2023 with his fifth crop of yearlings conceived at a justifiably much higher price of €25,000.