The Average Earnings Index (AEI) for thoroughbred stallion evaluation, was devised by legendary Kentucky horseman Joseph Alvie Estes in 1948. Further development by Estes and his devotees lead to a Broodmare Sires AEI and later a Comparable Index for stallions whereby the AEI for a particular stallion is compared to the AEIs of the produce of the mares sent to him when they were sent to all other stallions.

The AEI has become an industry standard for assessing the relative performance of stallions, both on a seasonal and a lifetime basis. The advent of the computer age gave rise to much more comprehensive utilisation of the figures in most major breeding jurisdictions. Australia has lagged behind the world in the development of the AEI, with the notable exception of those wizards of the data and cyber worlds Brian and Tim Kelly of Bloodstock Computer Services. Among their many pioneering services in the mid 1970s, they issued three volumes of sire statistics which included the AEI, followed by one of the earliest thoroughbred reference CDs in the mid 90s, once again featuring the AEI. Both these ground breaking products had little commercial exposure but now the long wait is over.

Thanks to our joint venture with the Kellys in bloodhound.net.au we are proud to announce the introduction of seasonal and lifetime AEI figures for stallions standing in Australia, New Zealand and all the jurisdictions within the scope of the Bloodhound database. The AEI figures will be exclusive to our group of publications.

The calculation is made in the following way, if the average earnings for a runner during a particular racing season is $10,000 and the subject stallion has 100 runners which earn a total of $1.5 million, this converts to a an average of $15,000 per runner which results in an AEI of 1.5 (15,000/10,000) for the stallion. The total prizemoney, number of individual runners and average prizemoney per runner for the past ten Australian racing seasons appear in the table below –

Season	Individual Starters	Total Prize Money	Average Earnings Per Runner
2009-2010	31180	$433,353,081	$13,898
2008-2009	31588	$441,483,712	$13,976
2007-2008	29971	$370,297,494	$12,355
2006-2007	31416	$391,372,503	$12,458
2005-2006	31188	$383,872,006	$12,308
2004-2005	31037	$361,949,205	$11,662
2003-2004	31123	$344,207,627	$11,060
2002-2003	31638	$331,281,351	$10,471
2001-2002	31695	$317,930,059	$10,031
2000-2001	31633	$308,592,617	$9,755

The AEI figures are displayed on the right hand side of our sire lists. The first column shows the current season AEI, the second column shows the stallion’s career total individual starters which leads to the calculation of the figures in the third column which shows the stallion’s cumulative AEI.

COLOUR CODING
The figures are colour coded for easy assimilation. AEI figures of 2 or more are coloured red with the important qualification that the stallion in question must have 50 or more individual starters. As with all statistics involving averages, the inherent weakness in the system is the ability of a relatively small number of extraordinarily high earners to distort the figures upwards. This distortion is likely to be less significant with higher numbers of runners such as those used to calculate the cumulative AEI.

BILL OPPENHEIM
Figures based on a median earnings bands were developed much later than the AEI and have also become widely accepted within the industry. APEX ratings, as they are called, are also available exclusively on bloodhound.net.au and are regularly published in BLUEBLOODS.

CLICK HERE to see the current Australian General Sires List with AEI.

Permalink| Aug 2, 2010

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