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 ninth place...
Coulsty
2023 yearling ave: 16,520gns/€19,601
2021 covering fee: €4,000
Profitability index: 4.90
Rathasker Stud-based budget option Coulsty was the surprise package in the 2020 freshman table, as he supplied nine winners from just 23 runners for an excellent strike-rate of 39 per cent. Three of those – Santosha, Sopran Aragorn and Suicide Squad – were stakes scorers.
His yearlings bred in the afterglow of that bright start were popular with buyers last year, with 62 lots bred off a fee of just €4,000 selling for an average of 16,520gns (€19,601). The most expensive of all was a half-brother to Nunthorpe runner-up Que Amoro sold to Alex Elliott for €82,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.