The publication of the Weatherbys Return Of Mares highlighted various worrying trends, not least a further decline in the British and Irish foal crop, this time to the tune of five per cent.
There was also a slight drop in the total number of recorded coverings to 15,456, down from 15,983 in 2024.
What was striking, however, is just how polarised the stallion scene has become.
Fashion has long been a key driver behind breeders’ decisions and for some a sense of commercial awareness will never been more important as the cost of production continues to rise. As such, it is hard to argue against the weight of support behind a concentrated group of ‘fashionable’ stallions.
What it has led to, however, is some extortionate book sizes covered by various stallions.
To recap, jumps sire Affinisea was the busiest sire of 2025 overall, covering a book of 314 mares at Whytemount Stud in Kilkenny. The jumps market is annually responsible for its share of busy stallions but various Flat-based names weren’t far behind led by Sioux Nation, who covered 282 mares at Coolmore’s Castle Hyde Stud, and Tally-Ho Stud’s Starman and Mehmas, whose books numbered 267 and 257 respectively.
Therein lies a snapshot of the market as a whole. Sioux Nation, Starman and Mehmas each promise to throw that speed that is craved by the commercial market.
Sioux Nation belongs to the Scat Daddy sire line, one that remains particularly commercially appealing in light of its ability to throw good-looking, precocious horses, and is a proven source of speed whose recent books have been underpinned by an increase in numbers and quality. His stock are well liked by pinhookers and with the potential of better to come via those large crops in the pipeline, it’s not too hard to see why breeders piled into him at his fee of €30,000 in 2025. He is due to stand this season for €37,500.
Similarly, Mehmas can be relied upon to throw fast, sound and precocious stock, all of which makes him a go-to stallion for trainers, agents and pinhookers. As for Starman, his book size is reflective of the fast start made by his first two-year-olds. The July Cup winner hit the ground in March when Tally-Ho’s homebred Lady Iman bolted up on her debut at Dundalk. A series of good breeze-up results followed and Starman duly received 267 mares at €10,000. As it turns out, those breeders who took a chance were on the money as the son of Dutch Art ended 2025 as the year’s dominant leading first-crop sire with five stakes winners to his credit. His fee has been increased to €40,000 for 2026.
Given the market’s belief in speed, it is heartening that the busiest new stallion of 2025 was the Derby winner Auguste Rodin. Part of a powerful intake for Coolmore that also included champion City Of Troy and Henry Longfellow, Auguste Rodin obviously offers a depth of race record that should be celebrated, with his victory in the Derby complemented by wins in the Vertem Futurity, Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, Irish Champion Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Auguste Rodin also offers something a bit different for breeders as a son of Deep Impact and therefore a member of the Sunday Silence tribe, to whom he closely resembles physically. It won’t have passed breeders by how well Study Of Man, another Group 1-winning son of Deep Impact, is faring at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, notably as the sire of Group 1 winner Kalpana out of his first crop.
Concentration
Indeed that is part of the conundrum that today faces breeders. Whereas the British and Irish stallion population hosted names from a diverse range of sire lines – think Sharpen Up, Ahonoora, Derring-Do and Grey Sovereign among many others – the options are today concentrated to an alarming degree.
Flat and dual-purpose based representatives of the Galileo sire line received just over 1,800 mares between them. The leader in this department is Frankel, whose book of 192 consisted of 61
Group/Grade 1 winners and/or producers. Frankel had five sons standing in Britain and Ireland in 2025, but only one, his 2,000 Guineas-winning son Chaldean who is based alongside his sire at Banstead Manor Stud, received a three-figure book. The others, namely Cracksman, Mostahdaf, Triple Time and Without Parole, ranged from the 42-mark to 90.
One interesting aspect to Galileo’s current influence has been the development of the Teofilo/Havana Gold branch as a source of speed. That, of course, is down entirely to Havana Grey, the product of a fast Dark Angel mare. Such has been his ascent for Whitsbury Manor Stud that Havana Grey now has a handful of his own sons at stud starting with champion two-year-old Vandeek,
whose first book at Cheveley Park Stud numbered 161, and the Irish National Stud’s Shouldvebeenaring, who was the recipient of 125 mares.
All the while, daughters of Galileo have forged a powerful partnership with Dubawi; the cross, including variations, sits behind seven Group/Grade 1 winners on Dubawi’s stud record to date, among them several who have made their way to the breeding shed, namely the Darley trio of champion sire Night Of Thunder, Ghaiyyath and Modern Games and Coolmore’s Henry Longfellow. Between them, they covered 628 mares in 2025, just over 40 per cent of the line’s 1552-strong share overall. And of course, it’s far from being all about that quartet since Dubawi’s influence continues to be brilliantly advertised by New Bay and Too Darn Hot alongside this year’s successful first-crop sire Space Blues.
Meanwhile, the strong regard of breeders for the Scat Daddy tribe, for which the cultivation primarily rests at the door of Coolmore, manifested itself in the 282 mares sent to Sioux Nation. Coolmore’s other son of Scat Daddy, the proven Group 1 sire No Nay Never, received 151 mares while its champion City Of Troy, the first son of Justify to stud in Britain and Ireland, was one of the busier new sires of 2025 with a book of 175.
Sires descending from two bastions of the Danzig sire line in Green Desert and Danehill attracted around 3,300 mares. Around 1,830 of that total headed the way of members of the Green Desert clan, which is admittedly today so versatile that it offers breeders a range of options, whether through the generally quick pair of Invincible Spirit and Oasis Dream or the more middle-distance Sea The Stars. Approximately 1,500, meanwhile, were covered by descendants of Danehill, plenty of them via his son Kodiac.
While Kodiac’s own career is entering the twilight zone at Tally-Ho Stud, as a book of 78 suggests, there is no shortage of momentum behind several of his sons. Kodi Bear and Ardad are among those to have contributed to the notion that Kodiac is an effective sire of sires, and it could well be that Tally-Ho house the next major son in Good Guess.
Breeders certainly think so given that they have sent the Prix de la Foret winner 442 mares in his first two seasons.
Mare share
That in itself is primarily reflective of the confidence behind Tally-Ho Stud, which has developed Kodiac, Mehmas and Starman into leading sires of the recent era, to the benefit of numerous smaller breeders in the process.
At the same time, its roster has grown to the extent that it is now one of the most powerful in Europe. Every one of its eight-strong line up, bar the veteran Kodiac, covered a three-figure book in 2025 (Bucanero Fuerte was taken out of service after failing get to his first 25 mares in foal). They were led by Mehmas, Good Guess and Starman who each received in excess of 200. Overall, around 1,300 mares went the way of their stallions.
By comparison, Darley’s British and Irish-based stallions covered approximately 1,709 mares, headed by Ghaiyyath on 192 (whose popularity took off in the spring off the back of the promise shown by Opera Ballo and Mandanaba).
Coolmore still boast the leading share, however, with their stallions having received over 2,550 mares. The aforementioned Sioux Nation and Auguste Rodin were the busiest pair closely followed by Wootton Bassett’s star-studded final book of 204 that contained Classic/Group 1 winners such as Blue Rose Cen, Chicquita, Empress Josephine, Lady Bowthorpe, Magic Wand, Opera Singer, Ramatuelle and Treve as well as the dams of Blackbeard, Camille Pissarro, Churchill, Palace Pier, Precise, Puerto Rico, Scandinavia, Ten Sovereigns, Twain, Unquestionable and Vandeek. Needless to say, he leaves a massive void.
Nevertheless for breeders hunting Wootton Bassett blood in 2026, there will certainly no shortage of options. No fewer than five of his sons are retiring to stud in Ireland, namely Camille Pissarro
(Coolmore), Henri Matisse (Coolmore), Maranoa Charlie (Tally-Ho Stud), Topgear (Capital Stud) and Unquestionable (Rathbarry Stud). There are few things that commercial breeders like more than an exciting young stallion, as we saw again in 2025 when just over 4,500 mares visited those who had yet to have runners. So expect each of those Wootton Bassett sons to be busy in their own right, especially as they slot into differing levels of the market.
As ever, the overall figures illustrate resilience to the top end of the market, once again proving that there are no shortage of people willing to invest in a six-figure fee whether it be £350,000 for Frankel or €250,000 for Sea The Stars (who has been increased to €300,000 for 2026). Veteran Dubawi is still going strong at 24 years old and it is a credit to the management of Darley that his 2025 book consisted of 80 mares. A total of 23 of those belonged to breeders outside of the Maktoum family and their associates.
Plenty of those stallions below that top end will inevitably go through peaks and troughs in popularity. However, there have been several encouraging instances in the past few seasons where stallions have made a comeback. Gleneagles springs to mind as a horse whose crop size dropped to 22 in 2022 before rebounding to three-figure levels. There was also renewed interest in Australia in 2025 as Coolmore reduced him to an all-time low of €10,000. He wound up with a book of 151, up from 51 the year before, interest that was fully vindicated when he went on to supply to Epsom and Irish Derby hero Lambourn as well as the Coronation Stakes winner Cercene.
Perfect Power’s book also grew from 58 to 134 as breeders latched on to a commercial bold showing from his first crop at the foal sales. Similarly, the popularity of Minzaal’s first foals at auction likely also drove his uptick in appeal.
They are further examples, however, of commercial results driving the market, particularly when it comes to middle tier stallions. The gulf between the popular and less fashionable is becoming greater, which surely isn’t healthy for the breed or industry, especially when so many of the popular horses are unproven. Luckily there remain numerous examples of stallions making their name from a range of backgrounds and differing levels of support, and long may that continue.
