Jockey Club projects smaller ’27 foal crop
Report of mares bred released
Press Release
October 13, 2026
The Jockey Club is projecting a North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop of 16,500 in 2027. For reference, the 2026 foal crop estimate was 17,000.
The foal crop projection is computed by using Reports of Mares Bred (RMBs) received to date for the 2026 breeding season. RMBs are to be filed by August 1 of each breeding season.
For the RMBs received through October 1, 2026, The Jockey Club reports that 670 stallions covered 23,932 mares in North America during 2026.
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The Jockey Club estimates an additional 2,000 to 3,000 mares will be reported as bred during the 2026 breeding season.
Of the RMB reports received, 180 mares were part of the Mare Incentive Program, which waives registration fees for certain 2027 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 through Interactive Registration 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 five years in North America as reported to The Jockey Club through October 1 of the breeding year.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | |
| Stallions | 880 | 825 | 771 | 738 | 670 |
| Mares bred | 26,744 | 26,202 | 25,263 | 24,662 | 23,932 |
The following stallions covered 200 or more mares: Sierra Leone had the highest number of mares bred in 2026 with 293 followed by Tiz the Law (288), Citizen Bull (261), Gun Runner (250), Gunite (236), Not This Time (230), Drain the Clock (227), Locked (226), Vekoma (224), Girvin (223), Golden Pal (221), Practical Joke (219), Corniche (216), Yaupon (214), Barnes (211), Justify (205), and Goal Oriented (201).
Stallion owners who have not returned their RMBs for the 2026 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 using Interactive Registration.
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