CAN annual sire rankings, released by various federations, give breeders a realistic view of each year’s leading stallions?

Eventing breeders will find influential bloodlines across the rankings, even taking into account the parameters of each leaderboard.

For example, the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) rankings are based on the top six progeny of eligible stallions, which can highlight sires producing a number of performers, instead of one superstar.

United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) rankings are confined to eligible members, while British Eventing (BE) rankings also double as a valuable source of information for Irish breeders and producers about their largest market.

Last year’s WBFSH eventing studbook rankings saw a historic 21st win for the Irish Sport Horse studbook and there was a further strong showing by Irish stallions n the eventing sire rankings. Courage II (third), Master Imp (sixth), Ghareeb (seventh), Limmerick (eighth) and Ricardo Z (ninth) made up the 50% of Irish-based stallions in this category.

Cooley Rorkes Drift, best-placed of the Irish squad at the Rio Olympics was the main flag bearer of his late sire Courage II, out of Vamara, a full-sister to another previous title holder in Cavalier Royale. Ricardo Z also contributed to a good showing by Kedrah House Stud sires.

Holsteiners, including reigning titleholder Contendro I, and thoroughbreds tied at three apiece in last year’s rankings while fifth-placed Kannan is the only stallion to feature in two disciplines (eventing and show jumping) in the 2016 rankings.

Master Imp is the one constant of the 2016 rankings, as the Irish-bred is the only sire to feature in the WBFSH, USEF and BE results, which hails as a remarkable achievement.

The late Loftus O’Neill’s homebred sire is also fortunate to have a number of stallion sons available to breeders, which isn’t always the case for eventing breeders.

The other dominant name is of course Jumbo, the traditional Irish Sport Horse that happened to be bred in the UK, and the late stallion was the leading all-time sire for the third successive year.

Jumbo overtook longtime leader Cavalier Royale in the all-time rankings when the rankings changed to allow points gained by offspring at foundation level (BE90, BE100) to be included in their sire’s total.

SET TO DOMINATE

With Jumbo and his nearest rival Master Imp still having a sizeable number of competition age progeny, this pair look set to dominate the all-time leaderboard in the immediate future.

What will be interesting in another decade’s time is to see where their successor come from and perhaps we have seen some in the BE young horse sires table (for four to eight-year-olds) which is headed by the Trakehner sire Grafenstolz.

Irish-based sires had a strong presence here too with five in the top-10, although in a reflection of millennial breeding patterns, no thoroughbred stallion featured this year.

There was a number of other pretenders to Jumbo’s crown, including the Irish-based OBOS Quality 004, Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvaan, Ars Vivendi, Lux Z and Lancelot.

Just as riders and producers can carve out a career in supplying horsepower for young event horse classes and lower level eventing, so too can stallions be targeted at various markets.

Breeders and stallion owners aiming to breed four-star eventers will have the longest wait of all, however BE’s young horse sires statistics are one method of predicting who the future WBFSH and all-time sires of the future will be.

WBFSH

1 Contendro (HOLST)

2 Heraldik (TB)

3 Courage (HOLST)

4 Jaguar Mail (SF)

5 Jumbo (SHBGB)

6 Master Imp (TB)

7 Ghareeb (TB)

8 Limmerick (HOLST)

9 Ricardo Z (ZANG)

10 Kannan (KWPN)

UNITED STATES

EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION

1 Contender (HOLST)

2 Riverman (HOLST)

3 Pablito (HOLST)

4 Black Fox Farm Incognito

5 Lupicor (KWPN)

6 Master Imp (TB)

7 Aberjack

8 Legendar (HOLST)

9 Contucci (HANN)

10 Bugatti Hilltop (HANN)

BRITISH EVENTING

TOP 10 ALL-TIME SIRES

1 Jumbo (SHBGB)

2 Master Imp (TB)

3 Cavalier Royale (HOLST)

4 Primitive Rising (TB)

5 Fleetwater Opposition (TRAK)

6 Ricardo Z (ZANG)

7 Ghareeb (TB)

8 Cruising (ISH (TIH)

9 Puissance (ISH) (TIH)

10 Fines (TB)

BRITISH EVENTING

2016 TOP 10 SIRES

1 Jumbo (SHBGB)

2 Master Imp (TB)

3 Ghareeb (TB)

4 Ricardo Z (ZANG)

5 Mill Law (SHBGB)

6 Ramiro B (BWP)

7 Chacoa (HOLST)

8 Harlequin Du Carel (SF)

9 Lux Z (HANN)

10 Grafenstolz (TRAK)

BRITISH EVENTING 2016

TOP 10 YOUNG HORSE SIRES

1 Grafenstolz (TRAK)

2 OBOS Quality 004 (OLD)

3 Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvan (BWP)

4 Ars Vivendi (HOLST)

5 Jaguar Mail (SF)

6 Lux Z (HANN)

7 Billy Be Cool (AES)

8 Lancelot (KWPN)

9 Ramiro B (BWP)

10 Jumbo (SHBGB)