Good read over at BloodHorse this morning. I think the take away is that, "[a]s recently as three years ago, first-year stallions could command a premium among young sires." And that, "[r]anked third by average stud fee are the sires entering stud in 2012 at $8,180."
Now I can safely say that the number is artificially depressed due to the fact that there was no dominant Triple Crown contender or any Horse of the Year-types (e.g. Blame) that could have been retired to stud this year. But overall, I'm surprised that the average has dropped for first year stallions from 2009 until now. Not that I had any other ideas about that, just would not have guessed that. A few more observations ATJ.
"For breeders looking for value, however, the $15,000-$24,999 stud fee range is a good place to shop." - Agree, with the caveat that Flashy Bull provides good value at 10k. There's always efficiencies to exploit, you just have to work hard to find them."The vast majority of growth is occurring in the category of proven sires standing for $50,000 and more." - This is obvious. The most successful sires will always command a premium and those with the best mares, the most money, and the highest aspirations will always shell out for the high end stallions. That will never change. There's a reason it is the Sport of Kings.
"The average stud fees for the bottom four categories are all down from last year." - Interesting. I wonder if this is more due to the market responding to a lack of return on your investment or a lack of supply of mares. I'm not sure you could really separate the two.
"The highest fee range ($100,000 and up) is collectively increasing the most, up 18.3% to $129,167 from $109,167 last year." - Small Sample Size Caveat. Not sure it is statistically significant if we're talking 2-3 stallions making up the differences
"In the $25,000-$99,999, range the average stud fee is going up 14%." - Despite the fact that the price range is enormous, the analysis afterwards is spot on, in my opinion. I mean we're talking some great/hot stallions here (and I'm cherry picking):
| - Arch |
| - Uncle Mo |
| - Blame |
| - Hard Spun |
| - Kitten's Joy |
| - Indian Charlie |
| - Tiznow |
| - Smart Strike |
| - Scat Daddy |
Overall, good article. I just wish any and all of the news outlets would take the next step in their analysis instead of just throwing numbers around.