The book provides a complete analysis of European bloodstock sales in 2023 for all foals, yearlings and older horses in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. It also includes foals and yearlings either foaled in Europe or by European-based sires at the major auctions in North America and Japan.

Furthermore, the Bloodstock Sales Review features comprehensive overviews of the trading year for Tattersalls, Goffs, Tattersalls Ireland and Arqana, as well as tables of the leading sires of 2023 by yearling average, lists of the year’s most expensive yearlings and foals, and a roll of top historical auction prices.

To mark the publication of the book, we compiled a top ten of the most profitable British and Irish-based yearling sires of last year.

We have worked out each sires’ profitability index by dividing their 2023 yearling average by their covering fee of 2021, when the offspring in question were conceived.

‍In tenth place...‍

‍Ghaiyyath‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 118,457gns/€140,549
‍2021 covering fee: €30,000
‍Profitability index: 4.68

The first crop of former world champion Ghaiyyath (pictured), a beautifully bred Dubawi half-brother to US Grade 1 winner Zhukova out of Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Nightime, really captured the imagination of buyers last year.His 65 yearlings who went through the ring sold for an average of 118,457gns (€140,549), boosted considerably by the 1,050,000gns sale of a colt out of smart sprinter Tickled Pink to Godolphin at Book 1 of the Tattersalls OctoberYearling Sale. Those figures represented a fine return on the sire’s €30,000 opening fee at Kildangan Stud.

In ninth place...

‍Coulsty‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 16,520gns/€19,601
‍2021 covering fee: €4,000
‍Profitability index: 4.90

Rathasker Stud-based budget option Coulsty was the surprise package in the 2020 freshman table, as he supplied nine winners from just 23 runners for an excellent strike-rate of 39 per cent. Three of those – Santosha, Sopran Aragorn and Suicide Squad – were stakes scorers.His yearlings bred in the afterglow of that bright start were popular with buyers last year, with 62 lots bred off a fee of just €4,000 selling for an average of 16,520gns (€19,601). The most expensive of all was a half-brother to Nunthorpe runner-up Que Amoro sold to Alex Elliott for €82,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.

In eighth place...‍

‍Kodi Bear‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 27,570gns/€32,711
‍2021 covering fee: €6,000
‍Profitability index: 5.45

Kodi Bear endeared himself to breeders when he was standing at Rathbarry Stud at a fee of just €6,000 in 2021 by siring 18 debut two-year-old winners at a useful clip of 34 per cent in the preceding year. He had alsocome up with five black-type performers, including the exciting Cobh and Measure Of Magic.A round 100 yearlings conceived in 2021 sold for an average of 27,570gns (€32,711) last year, with six making six-figure sums. Top lot was a colt out of a Tagula half-sister to Listed winner Champagne Or Water bought by Alex Elliott for 150,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.