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 seventh place...
Ardad
2023 yearling ave: 21,120gns/€25,058
2021 covering fee: £4,000
Profitability index: 5.54
It became apparent early in the 2021 Flat season that Ardad was going to play a leading role in that year’s freshman sire table, and so he duly received a late boost in bookings at Overbury Stud, where he was standing at a fee of just £4,000.
Ardad went on to field 23 first-crop two-year-old winners including dual Group 1-winning sprinter Perfect Power, and he has cemented his reputation as a useful source of sharp and speedy performers since then. That crop covered three years ago was therefore popular with breeders at the 2023 yearling sales, with 55 lots selling for an average of 21,120gns (€25,058), led by a half-sister to Middle Park Stakes third Summer Sands sold to Rodrigo Goncalves for €90,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.