Determining Appropriate Stud Fee Expense

[madelyn]

When a mare in foal is sold at auction, you can subtract the stud fee to try to determine the sale price of the mare (note I did not say VALUE). Sometimes a quantity of mares will be sold in foal to a stallion being promoted, to try to "get them out there" and the mare will end up severely penalized at the sale for being in foal to that stallion. Open mares usually are also penalized, if they have had foals but are not in foal. Oddly, the young mares off the track with decent pedigree and race record can bring a lot, even though it may take two years to get all of the junk out of their systems and get them ovulating and in foal.

[tbrace]

I find the 3:1 ratio rule generally helpful. The other way to look at it is the resulting foal should be worth 3 times the stud fee, or about the value of the mare. This is roughly what market publications use, such as the MarketWatch, and Bloodhorse, in building all those tables of whose foals were profitable.

There are many exceptions, of course. One is with older mares that have produced a stakes horse. You really can't sell them for much, because of their age, but they may still produce marketable foals with good value.