Stallion fees for 2023: Who represents the best value at stud?

By Laura Joy

Horse Racing

Sun November 13, 2022 · 2y ago

Blissfully unaware of the economic instability in the real world, the bloodstock industry is apparently thriving.

With every thoroughbred auction breaking their own previous record breaking results, focus now turns to the stallion fees for 2023. Where is the value, if any and which big names are jumping up or down? Let’s find out.

One of the most highly anticipated rosters, the Coolmore fees were announced this week and with it a fee for recently crowned Cartier Champion Two Year Old Colt Blackbeard. The only dual Group One winning juvenile of 2022, he won the Prix Morny in similar style to his accomplished sire No Nay Never.

At €25,000, he represents immense value to breeders looking for a tough, precocious and talented son of the hottest sire line around. Given No Nay Never’s warranted increase from €125,000 to €175,000, Blackbeard gives breeders access to a top class racehorse who appears to have inherited many of his sire’s talented genes. No Nay Never began life at €20,000 and it would come as no surprise if €25,000 for Blackbeard eventually seems criminally low.

Elsewhere on the Coolmore roster, Starspangledbanner jumps from €35,000 to a career high €50,000 following another stellar year led by Group 1 winner State Of Rest and a yearling average of over €138,000. With full books it was only a matter of time before his fee was raised and considering his four Group One winners to date were bred off lowly fees, it will be fascinating to see what a higher quality of mares will do for Starspangledbanner.

Coolmore stallion masters will be grateful they waited until after the Breeders’ Cup to announce the 2023 fees after rookie Saxon Warrior added a Grade 1 winner to his already impressive first crop. Victoria Road’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf win will have been instrumental in upping the son of Deep Impact up to a career high of €35,000 in advance of his first crop of three year olds to race.

As a racehorse, Saxon Warrior progressed from two to three and hopes are surely high his progeny will do the same. If that’s the case, €35,000 will look cheap in the not-too-distant future.

Champion sire elect Dubawi may be celebrating a monumental twenty first birthday next year but anchors the Darley roster at a new high of £350,000. Ensuring he remains the most expensive sire in Great Britain, the £100,000 increase is unlikely to have a resounding effect on Dubawi’s offspring.

Naturally, the quality of mare that deserves a £250,000 stallion is much the same as the mare visiting a £350,000 stallion. Dubawi’s highlights in 2022 include dual Breeders’ Cup and French 2000 Guineas winner Modern Games, ill-fated Classic winner Coroebus and Royal Ascot winning sprinter Naval Crown who joins Darley’s Irish operation at Kildangan stud for an opening fee of €15,000.

Dubawi’s prowess as a sire of sires is no more evident than on their own roster with Night Of Thunder another standing for a career high of €100,000 for 2023. Breeders will do well to remember Night Of Thunder started life at €30,000 and dipped as low ass Naval Crown’s opening fee of €15,000 before his first runners and with sons of Dubawi excelling on both sides of the Irish Sea, he is an attractive proposition.

Back at Darley Headquarters, three time Group One winning sprinter Perfect Power sets out at Dalham Hall commanding a £15,000 opening fee. A grandson of emerging sire of sires Kodiac, Perfect Power was sharp and precocious, a Royal Ascot winning juvenile and held his form in the Commonwealth Cup at three.

Whilst life became a little bit tough when sprinting in open company, he retires a far more accomplished racehorse than both his sire and grandsire and is in excellent hands to excel in his new role.

On a more sombre note, much adored Derby winner and Derby sire New Approach appears to have been pensioned from stud duties at Dalham Hall. Well documented fertility issues have plagued the 2008 Epsom hero but in his fellow Classic winner Masar he has a worthy heir in waiting to fill the void.

Masar will have his first runners in 2023 and thus his fee has held steady at £14,000, the same fee he has stood at for the past three years. Whilst it’s not an increase, it is encouraging that his progeny have been so well received – a €60,000 yearling average bodes well and avoiding a fee hike is another reason to believe he may not be available at that price for long.

For just a matter of hours, former Champion sire Frankel was the most expensive stallion in Great Britain when Juddmonte announced an increase of £75,000 to £275,000, putting him £25,000 ahead of Dubawi’s peak at the time, and rightly so.

Nine Group One winners in 2022 lead by Arc heroine Alpinista, Classic winner Nashwa and top miler Inspiral gave his masters every reason to increase his fee, notwithstanding his exceptional results in the sales ring for a yearling average exceeding €650,000.

Widely considered the best racehorse of the modern era, Frankel has transferred his racing talents to the breeding shed and is producing top racehorses on a regular basis who regularly compete successfully at the highest level around the world. His fee has gradually increased since 2018 which means the best is theoretically still to come, a mouth watering prospect. The battle for Champion Sire 2023 is going to be a riveting affair.

A penny for the writer’s thoughts, here are the conclusions.

Money is no object: Frankel

Frankel just edges this one. If you’re looking for your best chance of a representative in the Classics then look no further. Case closed.

On a budget: Perfect Power

Perfect Power won the stallion-making Prix Morny won by aforementioned No Nay Never on top of two other Group Ones and is priced fairly at £15,000. An attractive and tough racehorse, grandsire Kodiac has punched above his weight since retiring to Tally Ho and his latest descendant to take to the breeding shed has a reasonable shot of emulating him.

Best value: Churchill

Responsible for Cartier Champion Three Year Old Colt Vadeni as well as Group One winning juvenile Blue Rose Cen from his first two crops, a marginal increase from €25,000 to €30,000 is more than warranted and ensures he is still accessible to a wide array of breeders. His yearlings sold exceptionally well for an average just shy of €80,000. Highlights included a filly at Book One out of Where’s Sue who realised 400,000gns to Charlie Gordon Watson to name just one, so the future remains bright for this son of Galileo.

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