SHOW JUMPING is the commercial engine of the sport horse industry, as evidenced by the packed grandstands at the Rio Olympics during its show jumping competitions, in comparison to dressage and eventing.

So what were last year’s leading sires in the various rankings and are American and Antipodean-based stallions making any headway against European rivals? In fact, all of the top-10 World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) show jumping stallions were European-based with Roc USA the sole North American option.

Once again Diamant De Semilly shone for the Selle Français studbook and easily topped last year’s WBFSH show jumping sires group. Don VHP Z (individual 8th) and Quickly de Kreisker (27th) were his main point-earners. Past Olympic competitors were a theme of the 2016 rankings and dual team gold medallist For Pleasure moved up two places to take second place, owed mainly to Hello Forever (13th) and Flora De Mariposa (15th).

Cornet Obolensky, already popular with Irish breeders, retained his top-three place for the third successive year. His top points-earner was Clooney 51, one of six Cornet Obolensky show jumping offspring that had qualified for the Rio Olympics.

Casall Ask bowed out from the international scene with some memorable wins over the winter including his Longines Global Champions Tour title win and Grand Prix victory with Rolf-Göran Bengtsson in Doha. As a sire, he stamped his authority on the Holsteiner Verband stallion inspections and then appeared in fourth place in the WBFSH sire rankings, all within the same week.

Günter Schüder was another breeder honoured at the WBFSH awards at Geneva last December for Chesall Zimequest, the federation’s leading individual show jumping horse and sired by Casall Ask.

Fifth-placed Kannan is the only stallion to feature in two disciplines in the 2016 rankings, as the Voltaire son rounds out the eventing top-10 sires too. He has enjoyed a surge of support following the success of Bertram Allen’s Molly Malone V and Steve Guerdat’s London Olympics gold medal winner, Nino des Buissonnets.

Five Irish-based stallions feature amongst the top-100 with only Lux Z in 43rd place making the top 50 and the Hanoverian sire’s inclusion kicks off a strong showing in this year’s rankings for Kedrah House Stud sires. The sole Irish-bred Cruising (58th) together with other imports Guidam (61st), Ard VDL Douglas (63rd) and OBOS Quality (66th) are the remaining Irish-based sires in 2016’s top-100.

Leading the way in the United States Equestrian Federation rankings is Chellano Z, cloned by Zangersheide Stud after the Contender son’s premature death, and his top offspring are McLain Ward’s Carlos Z.

Indoctro (second) has the highest number of progeny (33) recorded in the US sire rankings which, unsurprisingly, feature a range of European household names. The only Irish-based stallion to break into this year’s top-20 sires is OBOS Quality 004 (15th), while Cruising appears in 23rd.

Although British Showjumping do not collate sire statistics, their annual top earner rankings offer an insight into the cross-channel market, once dominated in pre-millennial times by Irish-breds and their sires. Illustrating the scale of prize money now available on the international circuit is Scott Brash’s prolific winner Ursula XII. The Scottish Sport Horse mare earned just short of £1 million sterling last year, three times the amount won by her stable companion Hello Forever.

Were rankings run on prize money earned, similar to the bloodstock world, that would have given her sire Ahorn a considerable boost.

Sire rankings serve as a useful tool, however there are always other factors to consider including the quality of dams behind their best performers and the sheer numbers of offspring produced by the leading sires, both at home and through AI abroad.

ROLEX SHOW JUMPING

SIRE RANKINGS

1 Diamant De Semilly (SF)

2 For Pleasure (HANN)

3 Cornet Obolensky (BWP)

4 Casall (HOLST)

5 Kannan (KWPN)

6 Kashmir Van’t Schuttershof (SBS)

7 Balou Du Rouet (OLD)

8 Chacco-Blue (MECK)

9 Baloubet Du Rouet (SF)

10 Cardento (HOLST)

2016 USEF TOP 10

SHOW JUMPING SIRES

1 Chellano Z (HOLST)

2 Indoctro (HOLST)

3 Catoki (HOLST)

4 Quidam’s Rubin (HOLST)

5 Roc USA (KWPN)

6 Corland (HOLST)

7 Toulon (BWP)

8 Quite Easy I (HOLST)

9 Baloubet Du Rouet (SF)

10 Cardento (HOLST).

BRITISH SHOW JUMPING

HORSE LEAGUE 2016

£

1 Ursula XII (SSH) s. Ahorn 964,170

2 Hello Forever (OLD) s. For Pleasure 315,986

3 Argento (AES) s. Arko III 271,457

4 Diaghilev (SHB (GB) s. Vangelis 181,324

5 Catwalk IV (HOLST) s. Colman 172,692

6 Viking V (KWPN) s. Jacomar 169,012

7 Sarena II (SF) s. Calvaro 144,649

8 Bintang II (KWPN) s. Tangelo Van De Zuuthoeve 133,625

9 Hello M’Lady (BWP) s. Indoctro 103,651

10 Ornellaia (HOLST) s. For Pleasure 103,526