Weatherbys has published the 59th 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 2023 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 2023 by yearling average, lists of the year’s most expensive 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 2023 yearling average by their covering fee of 2021, when the offspring in question were conceived.
In sixth place...
New Bay
2023 yearling ave: 93,617gns/€111,077
2021 covering fee: €20,000
Profitability index: 5.55
Ballylinch Stud-based Prix du Jockey Club hero New Bay made breeders’ heads turn when his first crop of two-year-olds yielded a high strike-rate of winners including Royal Lodge Stakes victor New Mandate, Oh So Sharp Stakes scorer Saffron Beach and Listed-placed pair Imperial Yellow and Vafortino in 2020.
The son of Dubawi consequently covered an upgraded book of mares at an upgraded but still reasonable fee of €20,000 in the following season, and 81 of the resultant offspring sold as yearlings last year for an average of 93,617gns (€111,077), led by Amanda Skiffington’s purchase of a full-sister to Saffron Beach at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale for €1.65 million.