THE world’s most lucrative horses earned more in 2020 than the world’s best-paid footballers.
Racehorses can earn millions on the track, but their real fortune lies in their breeding rights off it.
The top ten stud horses in the world in 2020 combined to make their owners a staggering £346million.
By contrast the salaries of the ten best-paid footballers totalled £303m – a difference of £43m.
Those figures will come as no surprise to the billionaire owners of the world’s top racehorses and stud farms.
And those who aren’t part of it know the riches they are missing out on – just ask Sir Alex Ferguson.
The legendary Manchester United manager was involved in a row with two Irish racing tycoons – and former United shareholders – over the breeding rights of champion horse Rock of Gibraltar, worth £200m.
It was estimated that Fergie missed out on millions after settling the case out of court.
He knows full well the difficulties of negotiating a player’s wage, though, and that is what we have used for footballers here, with sponsorships excluded.
Starting at the top, Barcelona hero Lionel Messi has the highest salary of all, according to Forbes‘ list of best-paid players for 2020-21.
The six-time Ballon d’Or winner is paid £67m a year by the Nou Camp club.
The best horse, Galileo, had sex with around 120 female horses in 2020 at a cost of £600,000 a go.
That equals £72m.
Cristiano Ronaldo took a pay cut to go to Juventus, where his salary from the club is said to be £51m – some £6m below what Neymar gets at PSG.
But even those eye-watering figures are only just above the £48m Medaglia D’Oro brought home.
He covered 314 mares last year at a cost of £153,000 a go.
The amounts of money are incredible, and, going on the most recent figures available, the smallest amount made by a top ten horse in 2020 was £19m.
That came from Tapit, who is believed to have covered 179 mares at £150,000 a go.
Legendary racehorse Frankel – unbeaten in 14 runs – earned just shy of £3m on the track.
But after covering 175 mares last year at £175,000 a pop he earned £31m – ten times as much.
Of course, take in a player’s sponsorship deals and it could be a different picture.
But in terms of bare salary and earning potential after retiring, it’s certainly better to have four legs rather than two.
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