THREE’s a charm for Johnson and Diarado topping the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) 2024 dressage and eventing sires’ rankings for a third consecutive year.
Kannan is the change in this year’s line-up, moving up to the top spot in the show jumping sire rankings. The Voltaire son overtook Diamant de Semilly, who himself had ended Chacco Blue’s six-year reign, as the leading show jumping stallion of last year’s leaderboard.
James Kann Cruz is once again Kannan’s chief points-earner, solidifying his sire’s number one result.
Among eventing sires, O.B.O.S Quality retained his 2023 second place. His best performer was MGH Grafton Street on the Japanese bronze medal team at the Paris Olympics.
There was just one more Irish-based sire in the top-10 eventing results, as Tolan R has broken into the top-10 for the first time.
Previous WBFSH eventing sire rankings have included up to five Irish-based stallions, so another signal in the sport’s changing breeding patterns.
The tide is completely out for thoroughbred stallions, although Coroner, the highest-ranked in 53rd place, is another with an Irish connection.
Luidam is a consistent sight in rankings’ leaderboards. He finishes in 29th place in eventing and 55th in show jumping (the highest result amongst the Irish-based show jumping stallions).
The WBFSH rankings format is based on FEI points won by all recorded progeny during the federation’s calendar year, beginning on October 1st. Each of the top-100 and their progeny are listed on www.wbfsh.com.
There are always other variables to consider, such as the total number of offspring, how many made it to competition level and what impact they made.
Other factors, such as fertility rates and the contribution of damlines, require further drilling down, rather than taking rankings at complete face value.
One-hit wonders can tilt prize money-based rankings, such as Hippomundo; points-based rankings can favour stallions with numerous offspring clocking up points at lower levels.
Caveats aside, rankings make for interesting reading, so let’s see the WBFSH big names.
DRESSAGE
Numbers play in favour of this year’s top stallion Johnson - one of two Jazz sons in the top-10. His top offspring Great Escape Camelot is 27th in the WBFSH dressage horse rankings.
Second-placed Quaterback’s best offspring Touchdown is ranked sixth amongst dressage horses and Quaterback also has DSP Quantaz hovering outside the top-10 (12th).
In fact, only Quaterback and ninth-ranked Bordeaux 28 have top-10 ranked performers; Bordeaux 28’s pair are Bluetooth Old (seventh place) and Fame (ninth).
It’s a deep dive to 40th place to find Easy Game, the sire of the WBFSH number one-ranked dressage horse: TSF Dalera BB. The Trakehner stallion has only one other offspring listed: Hermes N.O.P (19th), so two top-20 offspring from a tiny book of mares is a remarkable feat.
However, with the Paris Olympic gold medallist mare Dalera now retired, we can expect Easy Game to drop even further next year.
Sires-and-sons themes are prevalent in dressage; Johnson TN first topped the WBFSH dressage sire ranking, when he replaced his sire Jazz in 2020.
Similarly, Lord Leatherdale (25th) and his son Everdale (26th) are amongst the top-30 this year. Everdale is also ranked fifth individually, making him his sire’s best performer, while he himself produced Imothep (ranked fourth).
The Sandro Hit 1 son San Amour I is the sole top-10 newcomer among the dressage sires. Like Tolan R, he has moved from 12th in last year’s rankings to the major league.
EVENTING
Similarly, it’s a ‘cut and paste’ theme for the eventing sires, with no major changes.
The Diamant de Semilly son Diarado retains his title for a third year. JL Dublin, one of eight Diarado offspring in the top-100 eventing horses in the WBFSH rankings released in October, is again his best performer.
Tom McEwen's JL Dublin, pictured at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, is the best performer for the WBFSH leading eventing sire Diarado \ FEI/Benjamin Clark
Eight top-100 event horses from 53 offspring in the WBFSH records, gives Diarado the best strike rate amongst the top-10 eventing stallions.
O.B.O.S Quality 004, Kieran Kennedy’s Oldenburg stallion moved to fifth place in 2020, fourth in 2021, third in 2022 and now retains second place for two years in a row.
His top horse from 81 listed progeny is MGH Grafton Street (ranked 36th individually), bred in Co Tipperary by the late Martin Collins. A Burghley CCI5* winner for Pippa Funnell in 2019, the 16-year-old gelding changed hands at the start of the year to join the Japanese bronze medal team at Paris, where he and Yoshiaka Oiwa also finished seventh individually at the Olympics.
Three other former number one-ranked WBFSH eventing sires in Jaguar Mail, Grafenstolz and Contendro I feature once more in this year’s top-10.
The Kate Jarvey-bred and Austin O’Connor-ridden Colorado Blue (second in the individual horse rankings) is Jaguar Mail’s best offspring again this year.
Jaguar Mail has two more - Box Leo (39th) and Vassily de Lassos (68th) - amongst the top-100 ranked event horses.
Kannan is the sole stallion to master a dual appearance in this year’s sire rankings, topping the show jumping set and finishing in fifth place in eventing. Dao de l’Ocean (sixth) and the Alan Wheeler-bred Cooley Snapchat (22nd) are his best eventing progeny.
Contendro I reigned for five years (2015 - 2020) as the WBFSH top eventing stallion. He retains last year’s seventh place and also has the honour of producing this year’s Paris Olympics individual gold medal horse: fischerChipmunk FRH.
Any other Irish-based names amongst the top-100? Sligo Candy Boy has skyrocketed from 57th place last year to 11th and now he and Shannondale Sarco (12th) lie just outside the top-10.
This pair are closely followed by Valent (14th) and Womanizer (15th), then Ars Vivendi (18th) and VDL Arkansas (20th) complete the top-20.
Ramiro B (26th) and the dual-purpose Luidam (29th) are next, then Jack of Diamonds (32nd), Royal Concorde (36th), Tinarana’s Inspector (45th), Cavalier Royale (48th), Puissance (49th), Coroner (53rd), Imperial Hights (56th), Orestus VDL (56th), Dignified van’t Zorgvliet (65th), Quality Time TN (69th), Celtic Hero BZ (70th), Je T’Aime Flamenco (75th), Future Trend (87th) and Vechta (equal 99th).
Both Courage II and Master Imp have dropped out of the top-100 for the first time. The Maryland International five-star win in October by the Courage II flagbearer Ballaghmor Class will count towards his sire’s tally for next year’s WBFSH rankings, while Master Imp had little else to prove.
Slyguff Stud’s home-bred notched up 11 top-10 places since 2008. The leading sire in 2014, the Imperius son finished second four years in a row (2010-2013), third twice (2009, 2017), fourth twice (2008, 2015), sixth in 2016 and his final top-10 appearance was in 2018 (eighth).
The near-disappearance of thoroughbred sires from the rankings in the past decade will be a concern to some and adds fuel to the belief that the introduction of short-format eventing would favour continental lines, to the detriment of the thoroughbred.
Results of the Sinead Healion-bred Annaghmore Valoner (35th) account for Denis Phelan’s Coroner, appearing in 57th place. This makes him the highest-ranked amongst a handful of thoroughbred sires this year, followed by Gemini (60th), a clone of Gem Twist.
SHOW JUMPING
For a third year in a row, James Kann Cruz, bred by Patrick Connolly, ranks as the best of Kannan’s progeny. His individual sixth place in the earlier WBFSH show jumping horse rankings and those 1,505 points, earned on both sides of the Atlantic with Shane Sweetnam, copper fastened a second WBFSH show jumping sire title for Kannan.
Kannan first topped the show jumping stallions leaderboard 10 years ago, before the winning run of Diamant de Semilly and Chacco-Blue began and, apart from James Kann Cruz, has two more top-100 performers in Nikolaj de Music (38th) and Derby de Riverland (94th).
For a second year, Chacco-Blue retains second place, just ahead of longtime rival Diamant de Semilly.
Again, the Mark Sherry-bred EIC Up Too Jacco Blue (84th) is prominent amongst Chacco-Blue’s performers. Last year, he was the Mecklenburg stallion’s top points-earner; this year, he ranks third after Veneno (13th) and Cornet Blue PS (44th).
Blood Diamond du Pont (23rd) is the best of Diamant de Semilly’s performers. Cornet Obolensky makes a top-10 reappearance and, similar to Diamant de Semilly, has three top-100 horses, led by Millfield Colette (56th).
Cornet Obolensky is the only ‘new’ face in this year’s top-10, which also includes Comme Il Faut, sire of the third of the Paris Olympics individual gold medallist horses: Checker 47.
With modern science, these international household names are readily available to commercial breeders worldwide.
Are there any Irish-based stallions in this year’s top-100? Luidam, as mentioned, is best of the bunch in 55th place, followed by Quality Time TN, up from 72nd last year to 60th. Vivant, another of Coolballyshan House Stud’s team, is in 83rd place, while Pacino has dropped from 41st last year to 96th place.
Gemma W (KWPN), Gelvera (KWPN) and Vasco 118 (MECKL), from their continental crops, are the top offspring respectively for Luidam, Quality TN and Vivant.
All of Pacino’s stock are ISH-registered and EIC Cooley Jump The Q has done just that as the Pam Walshe-bred has overtaken HHS Seattle and Pacino Amiro, bred by Anne Hughes and Simon Scott respectively, to rate as Pacino’s top horse.
Concern
Rankings are always a useful yardstick, however, they require some decoding to establish a clear picture of a stallion’s worth and suitability for a breeder’s aims.
So, overall, not a huge change from last year’s WBFSH sire rankings.
The concern for breeders and fans of traditional and thoroughbred bloodlines in five-star eventing is the fall-off in thoroughbred sires. The concern for Irish stallion owners buying or breeding stallions is will they now attract the best mares, with so much competition? The marketplace provides the ultimate yardstick.
How will the WBFSH sire rankings compare to Hippomundo’s prize money rankings? Still some five-star action remaining, including CHI Geneva this weekend, which will have an impact on the dressage and show jumping rankings.
The eventing sire’s leaders will remain unchanged and currently include Cavalier Royale (third), Valent (fourth) Courage II (fifth) and Shannondale Sarco (10th).
The final Hippomundo rankings results in full in the New Year. For now, it’s all about Diarado, Kannan and Johnson, the leading WBFSH stallions for this year.
By the numbers
100 - points between Chacco-Blue and Diamant de Semilly in the show jumping sires’ title race.
50 - per cent of the 2014 top-10 eventing sires were thoroughbreds; Master Imp (first), Heraldik (second), Ghareeb (fourth), Cult Hero (seventh) and Ituango (ninth).
12 - KWPN stallions amongst this year’s top-10 sires in the three sports.
5 - Irish-based stallions in the inaugural eventing sires’ rankings (2008): Cavalier Royale (first), Cruising (third), Master Imp (fourth), Highland King (fifth) and Pallas Digion (10th).
3 - Diamant de Semilly sons are once again amongst the top-20 show jumping sires: Emerald (13th), Diarado (15th) and Elvis Ter Putte (19th).
2 - Irish-based stallions have held the WBFSH leading eventing sire title: Cavalier Royale (2008) and Master Imp (2014).
1 - stallion appears in both the top-10 eventing and show jumping sire rankings this year: Kannan.
WBFSH leading sires roll of honour (2008 - 2024)
2008 - Jazz (dressage), Cavalier Royale (eventing) and Darco (show jumping).
2009 - Jazz, Heraldik and Darco.
2010 - Jazz, Heraldik and Darco.
2011 - Jazz, Heraldik and Darco.
2012 - De Niro, Heraldik and Baloubet du Rouet.
2013 - De Niro, Heraldik and Baloubet du Rouet.
2014 - Gribaldi, Master Imp and Kannan.
2015 - De Niro, Contendro I and Diamant de Semilly.
2016 - De Niro, Contendro I and Diamant de Semilly.
2017 - De Niro, Contendro I and Chacco-Blue.
2018 - De Niro, Contendro I and Chacco-Blue.
2019 - Jazz, Contendro I and Chacco-Blue.
2020 - Johnson, Grafenstolz and Chacco-Blue.
2021 - Sandro Hit, Jaguar Mail and Chacco-Blue.
2022 - Johnson, Diarado and Chacco-Blue.
2023 - Johnson, Diarado and Diamant de Semilly.
2024 - Johnson, Diarado and Kannan.
Dressage
Eventing
Show jumping