GIVEN that Kingman was responsible for the top three prices at the Goffs November Foal Sale, it’s no surprise to see the Juddmonte stallion record the highest average foal price of any sire whose progeny were auctioned at the major sales last autumn.

Okay, only eight Kingman foals were sold but they produced an average price of over €500,000. That’s even higher than Frankel, who also had eight foals traded for an average of €441,229, leaving Juddmonte with the first two places in the table.

Supersires Dubawi (one foal) and Galileo (two) came next, followed by Lope De Vega whose 12 foals sold averaged €233,885, confirming the elite status of the Ballylinch lynchpin.

As you’d expect, Wootton Bassett, Night Of Thunder, Sea The Stars and No Nay Never all generated high average foal prices, but you didn’t need me to tell you that.

The question is, which stallions who had 10 or more foals change hands last autumn overachieved, when compared to their 2021 published covering fees?

Top of the list has got to be Ghaiyyath. His 21 foals sold at public auction averaged €117,004. Pretty impressive off a €30,000 fee. He’s down to €25,000 now.

New Bay has very similar stats. His 2021 fee was just €20,000 and last autumn he had 23 foals sell for an average price of €107,241. Unlike Ghaiyyath, New Bay is a proven sire on the track and his fee has rocketed to €75,000 for 2023.

Saxon Warrior had his first runners last year and 21 of his 55 runners won which was enough to encourage foal buyers to go in again. He had 31 foals sell for an average of €89,484, which is over four times his 2021 covering fee of €20,000. It will cost you €35,000 to visit him this season.

“We know all this,” you’re screaming. “Give us a couple of dark ones that aren’t booked up yet.” Okay, okay. How about Churchill, Kodi Bear, King Of Change and Inns Of Court?

And in Britain, among the best performers in the foal market were Sea The Moon, Mohaather, Kameko and Sergei Prokofiev.

From France, strong numbers were put up by Persian King, Hello Youmzain and Galiway. Scan the data on these pages and unearth your own nuggets and the ones to be wary of.

Fashionable National Hunt sires so dominant

THE domination of the National Hunt foal market by the progeny of a handful of stallions is evident from the end-of-year sales statistics.

With 60 foals sold at public auction last autumn, Walk In The Park still managed an average price of over €50,000. That’s higher than a lot of classic and Group 1 winners who had much smaller numbers of foals on the market.

Walk In The Park’s fee is private but one could not argue if offered a covering for around the €20,000 mark.

Blue Bresil had 71 foals sold at an average price of €28,140, no doubt helped by the exploits of Constitution Hill. His 2021 fee was private too, having been €8,000 in 2020.

While the two aforementioned stallions have proven themselves at the top level, we are some way off seeing the first runners for Crystal Ocean and his old rival Poet’s Word. So it is really is astonishing to see that Crystal Ocean’s 83 foals which sold last year realised an average price of €25,644. His fee stays at €8,000.

Poet’s Word had 59 foals sell for an average of €19,400 and his fee also stays still at €6,000 this year.