The Jockey Club announced today that it is projecting a 2010 North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop of 30,000. In addition, The Jockey Club has revised its original estimate of registered foals for 2009 from 35,400 to 34,000.

The foal crop projection, traditionally announced in mid-August, is computed by using Reports of Mares Bred (RMBs) received to date for the 2009 breeding season. RMBs are to be filed by Aug. 1 of each breeding season.

“After remaining stable for more than a decade, the number of mares bred has declined annually beginning in 2006 and the rate of that decline has accelerated in each of the last two breeding seasons,” said Matt Iuliano, The Jockey Club’s vice president of registration services. “These declines will have an obvious impact on the business in the years ahead, most notably at the racetrack, where, on average, 70 percent of registered foals make at least one career start.”

The 2010 foal crop is projected to be the smallest foal crop since 1977, when a comparable 30,036 foals were registered.

“We strongly encourage all stallion owners to submit their 2009 Reports of Mares Bred as soon as possible so that we can fully gauge the impact of these declines in 2009 breeding activity,” Iuliano added. “As always, we will publish this information in full as soon as a representative number of reports are in hand.”

Submission of RMBs can be accomplished quickly and easily through Interactive Registration^TM (IR), the online service that enables registered users to perform virtually all registration-related activities over the Internet. IR is available at registry.jockeyclub.com.

Additional foal crop information is available in The Jockey Club’s Online Fact Book, accessible at jockeyclub.com/factbook.asp.

The Jockey Club, founded in 1894 and dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the breed registry for North American Thoroughbreds. In fulfillment of its mission, The Jockey Club provides support and leadership on a wide range of important industry initiatives and it serves the information and technology needs of owners, breeders, media, fans and farms, among others. Additional information is available at jockeyclub.com.