The Thoroughbred Breeding Program led by KRA was initiated about 30 years ago, and has been promoted in full scale since 1991 for the breeding of Korean thoroughbreds. Significant development has been made particularly in the past ten years, and at present, Korean-bred horses represent approximately 80% of the racehorses in Korea.

The start of the 21st century saw KRA importing high-quality stallions, improving the training facilities in the country, and putting spurs to implement better educational practices so as to produce strong, fast, and world-class Korean-bred horses. Korean-bred horses are now striving for competitiveness at the international level, and it is hoped that in the near future, they will be competing in international races.

Breeding regions

Due mainly to its location, Jeju Island is the largest breeding region in Korea, with the other main regions situated on the mainland: Gyeonggi-do, Jeollabuk-do, and Gangwon-do. To date, there are 223 breeding farms in the country, with 165 farms(74%) located in Jeju Island.

Stallions

To date, there are 110 stallions in Korea. Of these, 75(68%) are in Jeju Island, and 12 are owned by KRA. The KRA-owned stallions cover broodmares free of charge. From 2004, to enhance the quality of the domestic-bred horses, KRA began importing high-quality-proven stallions from overseas.

Besides, KRA owns a number of winning horses in Multiple Grade Races, including VICAR(USA), FOREST CAMP(USA), PEACE RULES(USA), and EXPLOIT(USA).

Broodmares

In 1993, there were 245 mares in Korea, but to date, that number has grown to 2,347. Korean-breds broodmares account for 23% and the rest are foreign-bred broodmares. Around 1,000 broodmares are horses retired from racing in Korea. Since 2000, 100-250 broodmares have been imported every year from the USA, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, etc.

STALLIONS, BROODMARES, AND FOALS 2008~2012

BREEDING FIGURES 2012