Stud Book

For over 200 years the Stud Book Department has been dedicated to providing services to breeders in Britain and Ireland. We undertake the formal registration of mares, foals and stallions, both Thoroughbred and Non-Thoroughbred, to ensure the integrity of bloodlines upon which breeding and racing industries worldwide depend.

The definitive ancestry record for Thoroughbreds is The General Stud Book (GSB). Published by Weatherbys every four years since 1793, it records in 4-yearly installments all Thoroughbred matings and births in Britain and Ireland. Volume 46 of the GSB was published in 2009.

All Thoroughbred Stud Books around the world are based on the General Stud Book and all Thoroughbreds trace back to the very first volume of the GSB. An annual update for the Thoroughbred and Non-Thoroughbred Register is published as the “Return of Mares”.

In contrast to its historical perspective, the Stud Book Department has been instrumental in securing notable scientific advances in the integrity of the Stud Book information, including the introduction of bloodtyping, and later, DNA testing for parentage verification and since 1999, the microchipping of all foals to assist with identification.

Weatherbys organises and hosts the International Stud Book Committee – a body representing 69 countries whose objectives are to ensure that horses are accurately and consistently identified and to ease the movement of racehorses and breeding stock between countries.

Our comprehensive services are explained within this site, but if you have any queries please feel free to contact us: studbook@weatherbys.co.uk.