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 seventh place...‍

‍Ardad‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 21,120gns/€25,058
‍2021 covering fee: £4,000
‍Profitability index: 5.54

It became apparent early in the 2021 Flat season that Ardad (pictured) was going to play a leading role in that year’s freshman sire table, and so he duly received a late boost in bookings at Overbury Stud, where he was standing at a fee of just £4,000.Ardad went on to field 23 first-crop two-year-old winners including dual Group 1-winning sprinter Perfect Power, and he has cemented his reputation as a useful source of sharp and speedy performers since then. That crop covered three years ago was therefore popular with breeders at the 2023 yearling sales, with 55 lots selling for an average of 21,120gns (€25,058), led by a half-sister to Middle Park Stakes third Summer Sands sold to Rodrigo Goncalves for €90,000 at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.

In sixth place...‍

‍New Bay‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 93,617gns/€111,077
‍2021 covering fee: €20,000
‍Profitability index: 5.55

Ballylinch Stud-based Prix du Jockey Club hero New Bay made breeders’ heads turn when his first crop of two-year-olds yielded a high strike-rate of winners including Royal Lodge Stakes victor New Mandate, Oh So Sharp Stakes scorer Saffron Beach and Listed-placed pair Imperial Yellow and Vafortino in 2020.The son of Dubawi consequently covered an upgraded book of mares at an upgraded but still reasonable fee of €20,000 in the following season, and 81 of the resultant offspring sold as yearlings last year for an average of 93,617gns (€111,077), led by Amanda Skiffington’s purchase of a full-sister to Saffron Beach at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale for €1.65 million.

In fifth place...‍

‍Sergei Prokofiev‍

‍2023 yearling ave: 34,624gns/€41,081
‍2021 covering fee: £6,500
‍Profitability index: 5.59

The first crop of yearlings by Sergei Prokofiev, a typically precocious son of Scat Daddy, captured the imagination of buyers last year. No doubt he was helped by the warm glow currently surrounding his home of Whitsbury Manor Stud, which built Havana Grey into one of the world’s most exciting young sires.He had 84 lots, conceived at a fee of £6,500, sell for an average of 34,624gns (€41,081), with a high of 220,000gns paid by Sackville Donald for a half-brother to US Grade 3 winner Motorious out of Nell Gwyn Stakes runner-up Squash at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.