Four of the mares are due to the mighty Frankel whose stud fee is a staggering £125 000 (R2.2 million) and the rest are in foal to Rock Of Gibraltar whose fee is a tenth of that even though he won seven consecutive Group 1s and has sired a string of winners at the same level.

CTS boss Adrian Todd said: “We bought the mares in a job lot from Coolmore, they are in foal to Southern Hemisphere time and we will sell the offspring as yearlings. Fifteen of the mares are at Klawervlei and the rest at Summerhill.

“We bought them because we feel that, as stallions can’t be shuttled to South Africa, this would be the next best thing.”

CTS also plans to sell the mares at some stage and Todd is optimistic that this will give the mare market a much-needed stimulus.

Picture: Frankel (Liesl King)