Breeding to sell: a hedonic price analysis of leading Thoroughbred sire stud fees

This article utilizes panel data on leading Thoroughbred sires from 1999 until 2008 and estimates the determinants of their stud fees, or the price paid for the rights to one breeding season, and the marginal value of those characteristics. Using a Fixed Effects (FE) estimation procedure, we find strong evidence of ‘breeding to sell’: stud fees for established sires are determined primarily by the sales prices of their progeny. Other determinants include a sire's ability to produce sons who go on to become sires themselves, current year progeny racing performance and cumulative racing performance of a sire's progeny.