The New Zealand foal crop has declined by a third since the late 2000s, but about 3000 foals have been registered with the Kiwi Stud Book for the past five years and a similar number is expected to be returned again in 2025.
While the number of mares being bred across the Tasman remains stable, its evolution is mirroring Australia’s trend if that greater emphasis is placed on giving breeders the best chance of a commercial return in the sales ring.
New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders Association chief executive Nick Johnson says the country’s reputation for producing quality horses that can “outperform their pedigrees” holds the industry in good stead.
“But I think we're obviously like everybody globally, I think there's been that challenge (to attract new investment) and obviously, there’s been a reduction in the foal crop,” Johnson said.
“If you look at it, there's been a 33 per cent decline since 2008/09 but I think the encouraging thing for us is that in the past five seasons here in New Zealand it's sort of stabilised at around a foal crop figure of 3000.”
The Straight revealed earlier this month that Australia’s 2025 foal crop could be the nation’s smallest since the mid-1970s as smaller breeders either downsize their broodmare bands considerably or exit the industry altogether.
If prominent New Zealand farm Rich Hill Stud was suffering this year due to a reduced appetite from local breeders to reinvest, then it would be a clear sign of ill health for the wider New Zealand industry.
With champion sire Proisir, Satono Aladdin, Ace High, Shocking and Vadamos, Rich Hill has an imposing stallion roster and breeders have backed the line-up in droves in 2024 keen to tap into the commercial appeal and bloodlines the Matamata stud has at its disposal.
“I haven't personally seen a big drop off. It's a little bit hard to know,” Rich Hill’s John Thompson says.
“A horse like Ace High, he has had his best year yet. He's served the most mares he's ever served this year.
“My gut feeling is there hasn't been a huge drop off, but there's definitely one thing we've found is people don't breed as late as they used to.
“They're perhaps a little bit more selective about what they're breeding.”
Similarly, Cambridge Stud is well-served with its line-up of five stallions and breeders continue to support them strongly.
High-profile first season shuttler Chaldean, a son of Frankel, Hello Youmzain, Almanzor and Sword Of State have all covered full books, leaving only Embellish who has covered about 60 mares at Brendan and Jo Lindsay’s historic stud.
Cambridge Stud CEO Henry Plumptre believes the foal crop will end up maintaining the status quo when they’re born in 2025, echoing the thoughts of Johnson and Thompson.
“Certainly if you'd said that to me three years ago, I would have said we're very nervous over here. But I think the Entain arrival and the lifeline that they've thrown the industry here, that's sort of stabilised the mare numbers,” Plumptre said.
“And, look, they're not flash. I mean, I think the Stud Book returns last year were something like 2,800 or 2,900 mares bred. I don't expect them to be any more than that this year, because I haven't seen Kiwi breeders flocking to the sales to buy (extra mares), and I haven't seen any new blood coming in here in the breeding ranks.
“But I think certainly there's new blood in the ownership ranks of racehorses, and I think that's been where the initial boost has been, because Entain has had an effect on prize money.
“The first recovery was always going to be racehorse ownership, I think.”
Tim Rowe
Windsor Park’s first-season sire Paddington, like Cambridge’s Chaldean, has also proven a drawcard for commercial breeders, an indication that breeders with mares capable of producing sales-quality yearlings were willing to keep reinvesting in the industry.
Wentwood Grange’s Hawkins brothers operate one of the Waikato’s premier broodmare farms, foaling down 160 mares this year, a drop on the 200 they normally look after each season.
“The number of resident mares dropped fractionally due to economic times, but there were definitely a couple of farms that we foal down for that cut back substantially,” Sean Hawkins said.
“I think the lower end has definitely dropped out (of the market) when you look at the stallions that we walked most of the mares out to, there weren't many in that lower bracket, most of the stallions were in that $15,000 to $20,000-plus range."
Hawkins argues that New Zealand breeders such as Cambridge Stud, Windsor Park, Trelawney Stud, Waikato Stud and others have continued to invest in improving the country’s broodmare population.
“Definitely from our standpoint, Wentwood Grange has never stopped. Any race filly that we've retained that has happened to get black-type we've always kept them and we generally buy at least two to three new mares every year as well,” he said.
“We always try to try to improve our broodmare band and it seems to be a bit of a common complaint from people that the (New Zealand Bloodstock) catalogue doesn't improve but it's certainly something that we're very wary of as New Zealand studmasters.”
Aushorse Investor’s Guide 2025
- More Races worth $1 million+ than Europe & America combined
- More than 140,000 Australians involved in racehorse ownership
Johnson would like to see more breeding partnerships formed as a way of re-engaging the farmer who used to have two or three thoroughbred mares in his paddock as a hobby.
“One of the challenges here is the fact that we've got to make sure that we are trying to do everything we can to retain our best race mares off the track and obviously with big investors out of Australia that's getting harder and harder,” he said.
“But I'm a true believer, away from the commercial breeding operations who do a fantastic job investing and building up their broodmare bands, that breeding partnerships have got a huge part to play.
“We've seen the success of syndication from a racehorse perspective and I think that can be applied in the breeding industry.”
Tim Rowe
