Cover image courtesy of Newgate Farm
With almost all the 2024 stallion coverings uploaded to the Australian Stud Book website, TTR reviwed the market share for major stallion farms over the past five years. With the top five farms covering more than a third of the broodmare population, there’s a certain market dominance that becomes very clear.
Dominance at the top
Since 2020, the leading farm has covered approximately 10 per cent of the broodmare population with their stallions.
| 2020 | Coolmore Australia | 1900 | 16 | 10% |
| 2021 | Widden Stud | 1918 | 21 | 9% |
| 2022 | Widden Stud | 2289 | 20 | 12% |
| 2023 | Newgate Farm | 1966 | 14 | 11% |
| 2024 | Newgate Farm | 2144 | 16 | 11% |
Table: Leading stallion farm by market share
When this is extended across the top five farms, they’ve collectively covered between 39 per cent and 44 per cent of the broodmare population.
| 2020 | 529 | 19725 | 7591 | 38% |
| 2021 | 525 | 20286 | 8184 | 40% |
| 2022 | 501 | 19441 | 8629 | 44% |
| 2023 | 436 | 18441 | 8144 | 44% |
| 2024 | 498 | 19473 | 7579 | 39% |
Table: Market share held by the top five stallion farms
The number of mares covered by each farm drops off quickly after that with the top ten stallion farms covering just under 60 per cent of the broodmare population.
| 2020 | 529 | 19725 | 11127 | 56% |
| 2021 | 525 | 20286 | 11989 | 59% |
| 2022 | 501 | 19441 | 12163 | 63% |
| 2023 | 436 | 18441 | 11100 | 60% |
| 2024 | 498 | 19473 | 10427 | 54% |
Table: Market share held by the top 10 stallion farms
This leaves 40 per cent of the broodmare population being covered by all the other stallions across Australia. These figures haven’t moved much in the past five years, while the individual farms involved have shuffled around during this time.
The market leader – Newgate Farm
Newgate Farm’s dominance in the stallion market shows clearly with their 16 stallions covering 11 per cent of the Australian broodmare band in 2024. This could potentially shift a little as the last few coverings come in before March 1, but is unlikely to be a substantial change at this end of the market.
| Newgate Farm | 2144 | 16 | 11% |
| Widden Stud | 1609 | 19 | 8% |
| Coolmore Australia | 1530 | 12 | 8% |
| Godolphin Australia | 1276 | 17 | 7% |
| Yulong Stud | 1020 | 8 | 5% |
| Vinery | 811 | 7 | 4% |
| Arrowfield Stud | 695 | 6 | 4% |
| Aquis Farm | 492 | 8 | 3% |
| Swettenham Stud | 465 | 6 | 2% |
| Lovatsville | 385 | 4 | 2% |
| Top Ten Totals | 10427 | 103 | 54% |
| Australia (estimated) Totals | 19473 | 498 | - |
Table: Top 10 farms dominating market share in 2024
It’s worth noting that Newgate Farm only had two of the top ten busiest stallions in 2024; Tassort who is currently fourth with 218 mares covered and Ozzmosis who is currently seventh with 192 mares covered. Newgate Farm also had Militarize (Dundeel {NZ}) who was gelded and sent back into training after being infertile, so his covers haven’t been lodged by Newgate.
Widden’s expansion to Victoria
In 2021, Widden Stud took over Victoria’s Sun Stud, and in 2022 they expanded again with the Spendthrift roster. This effectively doubled their stallion roster and they’ve leaped from being the sixth busiest farm by mares covered in 2020 to leading in 2021 and 2022 and second in 2023 and 2024.
“Obviously having the scope to place stallions in Victoria has helped boost the number of mares, and has moved Widden to a higher level,” said Matt Comerford. Their most popular stallion in 2024 was Zousain with 218 mares covered.
Zousain | Image courtesy of The Image is Everything
“Zousain’s incredibly popular. He’s a good value option for mare owners, they sold well, he stamps his stock well and he’s doing a really good job on the racetrack with Bellazaine, Amelita, and Drifting and the likes flying the flag for him. Success in the sales ring flows on to mare owners looking for a value horse. He’s pretty exciting.”
Of note, Widden Stud are second across the board by mares covered, but have only two stallions in the top 20 with the other being Zoustar who covered 188 mares and counting.
“It’s a good spread across our younger stallions who are all getting an opportunity. The idea is that we share the load and spread the opportunity, and we have a broad array of clientele looking to utilise a variety of stallions.
“We don’t do a lot of foal shares on the farm, and have some good shareholders who support us, and many have supported our stallion from the start of their careers including in the tougher third and fourth years.”
Other farm changes at the top of the market
Yulong arrived on the stallion scene in 2019 and by 2021 had hit the top eight farms by mares covered with six stallions on their roster and 725 mares walking through the barn. They’ve consistently been in the top eight since then.
Coolmore and Darley were the two market leaders in 2020. In 2024 they're third and fourth, while Newgate Farm and Widden Stud have been one and two for the past two seasons.
Aquis Farm has dropped from fourth in 2020 to eighth for the past two seasons as their stallion roster consolidated .
| Newgate Farm | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Widden Stud | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Coolmore Australia | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Godolphin Australia | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Yulong Stud | 5 | 5 | 8 | 8 | Not in top 8 |
| Vinery | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Arrowfield Stud | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Aquis Farm | 8 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
Table: Changing of the guard: the top 8 farms of 2024 and how their rankings have shifted
Another way of looking at this data is the spread of market share by the top eight farms over the same time period.
| Newgate Farm | 11% | 11% | 9% | 8% | 8% |
| Widden Stud | 8% | 10% | 12% | 9% | 5% |
| Coolmore Australia | 8% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 10% |
| Godolphin Australia | 7% | 9% | 9% | 9% | 9% |
| Yulong Stud | 5% | 6% | 4% | 4% | 2% |
| Vinery | 4% | 3% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Arrowfield Stud | 4% | 5% | 5% | 5% | 6% |
| Aquis Farm | 3% | 3% | 5% | 5% | 6% |
Table: Changing of the guard: Top 8 farms by market share percentage in 2024
Quality over quantity at Arrowfield
Arrowfield Stud had a difficult 2024 with The Autumn Sun out of action and Castelvecchio removed from covering at the start of November, soon after a hot run by his progency, after a growth was discovered in his bowel.
“They are both recovering well and we are anticipating that 2025 will be clear sailing,” said Jon Freyer.
"The Autumn Sun just had an impressive winner at Scone that we sold as a yearling and it bolted in.”
Trained by Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald, 3-year-old gelding Call Me Magnifique (The Autumn Sun) won on debut on Monday at Scone by 1.35l. He was a $400,000 purchase by Magus Equine from Arrowfield Stud’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale draft and his full sister will be offered at the upcoming Easter sale as Lot 117.
“With regard to broodmare numbers for our stallions, the primary thing we concentrate on is quality not quantity. For us, it’s more important to have a quality book of mares, than simply numbers, for a horse. To that end, you see that horses like The Autumn Sun’s quality of mares hasn’t changed or dropped off over time. That’s critical to making these horses successful.”
Queensland's history holds strong
Of the 255 stallions listed for 2024, 60 ended up serving more than 100 mares as at February 17.
They were spread across four different states with the majority, 50, in NSW or Victoria.
| NSW | 37 |
| Vic | 13 |
| Qld | 8 |
| WA | 2 |
| Total | 60 |
Table: Stallions who served over 100 mares (as of Feb 17) by state
Better Than Ready led Queensland with 140 mares covered.
“Better Than Ready covers big numbers every year because his 40 shareholders have double nominations and we have 30 mares to him as well,” said Lyndhurst Farm’s Jeff Kruger.
“He’s guaranteed 110 mares before I take a booking which allows us to maintain his fee without having to do deals as we already have a healthy book before we start. The year before he covered he 230 mares, because he had two winners on Magic Millions day so the phones started ringing well before the season. Chrysaor and others have helped keep things pretty healthy for the last two seasons.”
Better Than Ready has 14 stakes winners led by Group 1 winner Apache Chase and Port Lockroy, while Chrysaor is a Group 2 winner of over $1.2 million.
Better Than Ready | Image courtesy of Lyndhurst Stud Farm
“My biggest challenge is getting our shareholders, and ourselves, to upgrade their mares. If your yearling isn’t out of a well related mare, you get found out in the sale ring. We have to buy into good families rather than good race mares, because we can’t compete with the major farms. The only other way is to breed them and race them yourselves.”
Along with Spirit Of Boom, who Lyndhurst Farm have shares in, Better Than Ready is consistently one of the best stallions in Queensland.
“Better Than Ready and Spirit Of Boom are phenomenal juvenile-getters, there’s not a week that goes by where they don’t feature in the news somewhere. They’ve revitalised Queensland racing and I’m not sure where we’d be without them.
“Better Than Ready and Spirit Of Boom are phenomenal juvenile-getters, there’s not a week that goes by where they don’t feature in the news somewhere. They’ve revitalised Queensland racing and I’m not sure where we’d be without them.” - Jeff Kruger
“Better Than Ready is in the top 20 of the sires’ table with big guns either side of him and off the back of lessor mares. He’s not covering anywhere near the number of black type mares that he deserves. His first crop, he had 23 individual winners behind the record holder Without Fear who had 31. I think Deep Field is third (for first crop juvenile winners).
“Generally those sires who get a bunch of 2-year-old winners, you expect them to train on and forever be getting winners. Better Than Ready markets himself by nailing winners every week, and there’s quality too with a horse like Port Lockroy.”
But one horse doesn’t make a farm and the Queensland market is a different one to the Hunter Valley and Victorian major farms.
“We’re a little bit fortunate in that we’ve been operating a long time. There’s a couple of other family run farms who’ve been going a long time. You rely quite a bit on your history and your good name, and we’ve always had a good stallion here. They follow one after the other, when I was growing up it was Smokey Eyes, then Celestial Dancer, Sequalo, and now Better Than Ready. History goes a long way in promoting a first season sire, and you get the backing of long term clients. The big farms in Queensland have all been here 60 plus years and if you keep a good name and you’ll run a good business.”
Jeff Kruger | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
The only farm who doesn’t fit that statement is Aquis Farm who is relatively young and has been among the top eight farms by mare covering for the past five years, although their market share has dropped since they consolidated their stallion list and sold sires such as Pierata.
“Getting mare numbers in Queensland is not easy. The farms up here don’t have the marketing clout of the Hunter Valley. Take a look at the first and second season sires and the numbers they are covering. There are probably only six or seven horses in their first three seasons in Queensland who cover decent sized books. Our sire Barbaric had around 90 mares for each of his first three seasons which holds him in good stead for the future.”
Barbaric retired to Lyndhurst in 2022 and covered 86, 91 and 96 mares in his first three seasons at stud. His oldest crop are yearlings.
Statistical note: The final covering data will be released by the Australian Stud Book on March 1. 2024 data was compiled manually and is accurate to February 17 with minimal updates pending.
