2015 WBFSH World Stallion Rankings Analysed…

By Christopher Hector

The first thing to note with the release of this year’s Rolex WBFSH rankings, is just how consolidated dressage breeding has become in the past 20 years. Where once all sorts of weird and wonderful stallions – like Rusty’s sire, Rebuss – could make it to the top of the standings on the basis of one exceptional freak of a foal, now the top ten stallions are all clearly dressage sires and their points earners, purpose bred.

Given the domination of the German team by his progeny it is no surprise that De Niro has once again taken number one spot, with last year’s number one, Gribaldi slipping into second. Another former number one, Jazz moves from fifth last year to third, while Sandro Hit moves from seventh to fourth. The Danish based Michelino moves from sixth to fifth. Then two great sires who are no longer with us – Florestan goes from third to sixth, and Ferro moves from eighth to seventh. A new face in the top ten is Rubin-Royal, up from 15th to eighth, with Negro making the leap from 18th to ninth, and Diamond Hit, 11th last year, rounding out the top ten.

I must confess I was a little surprised not to find any representative of the newly re-invigorated ‘B’ line in the ten, although Breitling is sitting in 13th just behind Fidermark and Don Schufro, both of whom covered many more mares than Breitling.

The other factor that can somewhat skew the calculations is that a 5th place at say Werribee, counts for as much as a 5th place at Aachen, and sadly, I have to confess that the test that gets you 5th in Australia, won’t get you into the top 20 at Aachen. Once upon a time there were massive loadings for horses that won at top competitions, and this lead to the absurd scene where stallions with only one competition horse could become the ‘world’s best dressage stallion’, now we seem to have swung the other way, with only loadings for results at Olympics and World Cup finals, while 2, 3 and 4 star competitions all carry the same points, surely there should be a loading appropriate to the star rating…?

Dressage breeding has no doubt become more sophisticated, with greater depth to be found, but it is still a long way short of jumping breeding, which is to be expected since specialized jumping breeding has been going for a lot longer, with much better established and recognized mare lines. It is much harder for a jumping stallion to make the top ten, and requires a lot more results from many more horses to get there.

Having said that, there is incredible depth in the results for De Niro. The top five points earners are all international stars: Desperados (Wolkenstein II), Delgado (Weltmeyer), D’Agostino FRH (Shogun xx), Glock’s Voice (Rohdiamant) and Dablino (Wanderbursch II), have all represented their country, but the next five on the list are pretty handy as well: Devereaux OLD (Rhodiamant) won two Grand Prix (Darmstadt and Vidauban) this year with young Sanneke Rothenberger, Super Nova (Weltmeyer) was 2nd at Compeigne and 3rd at Perl with Spencer Wilton, Danilo (Andiamo) was 4th at Rotterdam 3 star with Shelly Francis, Die Callas (Carprilli) was 2nd at Saumur and 4th at Rotterdam with Anna Ross, and Donnerfee (Rosenkavalier) was 2nd at Arnham with Claudia Fassaert.

Number one dressage stallion, De Niro (above), and top five point earner, Desperados (below)

De Niro has depth for a dressage sire with 29 points earners – but it’s not quite in the same league as the jumping number one Diamant de Semilly with 80 points earners in his team.

Gribaldi in second does not have quite such a crew. His top four are genuine internationals: Unee BB (Dageraad), Siro NOP (Hemmingway), Atterupgaards Orthilia (Donnerschlag) and Painted Black (Ferro). Then Girasol (Landioso) – reasonable placings at minor shows with Nadine Capellmann and Morgan Barbançon, ditto for Thriller (Amor) and Katja Gevers, Tiesto (Ferro) and Christopher Koschel, Ulysses La Haya (Ulft) and Laurens van Lieren and Winston (Jazz) and Polina Afanasiera.

Second place goes to Gribaldi (above), pictured here with Unee BB (below)

By the time we get to the third stallion on the list, Jazz, the good competitors are shrinking rapidly. Only 15 points earners, only one current star, Glock’s Johnson (Flemmingh) and one former super star, Parzival (Ulft) who has alas now slipped to 378 on the world’s standings.

It is the same with the rest of the list, Sandro Hit with one toppish competitor, Santana (Rubinstein) is a serious competitor with Sweden’s Minna Teld. In 2nd Dorethee Schneider’s Ullrichequine’s St Emilion is an up-and-coming competitor with a 1st and a 2nd at Munich under its belt – then Jimmie Choo SEQ, best score a 2nd at Mannheim with Mads Hendeliowitz and we are starting to lose touch with the international elite.

Jazz – third stallion on the list (above), and son Glock’s Johnson (below) 

The fifth ranked stallion is Michellino. His best is My Lady (Ritterstern) ridden by US based Dane, Mikala Gundersen, 9th in the World Cup final at Los Vegas, followed by Smeyers Molberg (Rambo) who has won two Grand Prix for the Swiss rider, Marcela Krinke Susmelj but they were in Lipica and Caselle di Sommercampagna.

Florestan seems to be quietly fading from the top ten, he’s in 6th now, with his best Glock’s Flirt (Gauguin de Lully) fifth in the Grand Prix final in Los Vegas, but it was not perhaps the strongest of finals.

Ferro is still in the top ten, but aside from his number one, Glock’s Undercover (Donnerhall) his current crop does not inspire. His second best representative is Goerklintgaards Fanero (Le Mont-H) who seems to have competed only in Scandinavia with a 9th at Falsterbo the best outcome.

Then Rubin-Royal, and his number one competitor again has me scrambling through the data bases. Rubin Al Asad (Wanderbursch II) it emerges after quite a hunt, is owned  by the Bechtolsheimer family and ridden by their stable jockey, Lara Griffith. The pair won the Grand Prix and the Special at Le Mans, was 4th at Maastricht and has a string of placings on the Florida circuit, but having been to Wellington I am a little wary of the standard of competition, it is a bit like Werribee. Since the rankings were released they scored an impressive 78.025%  at Olympia to finish in 4th behind Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and Hans-Peter Minderhoud.

The second best is Rubins Nite (Limbo), their best GP result in the rankings period, a 5th at Windsor 3*. At Olympia, he was 14th in the GP and 7th in the Kür on 75.075.

I guess I am going to upset all the mare owners who have rushed to breed to Negro in the wake of Valegro’s success, but really Valegro (Gershwin) is the only star on his list. Next best, Kastel’s Nintendo (Monaco) with Charlotte Jorst. They won the GP and Special at Del Mar and the gelding had reasonable results with Denmark’s Thomas Sigtenbjergg, still not a true international.

I love Diamond Hit, and agree with Paul Schockemöhle that he is a better horse than his half brother, Sandro Hit, but his number one is again very much a fringe international – Doktor (Renoir) and Shelly Francis, stars in Florida but in Europe they find the going harder – 20th at Rotterdam, 19th at Hagen.

What the rankings tell me is that while dressage breeding has become much more specific, there is still a long way to go before we see the sort of consistency and depth the top jumping sires AND mare lines can provide. The dressage outcome may be somewhat compromised by the number of breeders whose aim is not top international sport, but the rather quicker return of success in the young horse classes, whereas jumping breeders are all aiming for the Grand Prix at Aachen or Calgary, even if the result is somewhat more modest.

Number one jumping stallion, Diamant de Sémilly (above), and his top scoring foal, Quickly de Kreisker (below)

That canny observer of jumping breeding Bernard le Courtois pointed to this year’s number one stallion, Diamant de Sémilly as a valuable outcross back in Monneron 2008 / 2009:

“The European studbooks had made much use in the past of Selle Français blood issuing from Furioso xx (Furioso II, which gave us Voltaire, For Pleasure and their numerous descendants) then Almé himself (who sired hundreds of stallions over two generations) notably the SF Quidam de Revel and Quick Star (who have also now numerous stallion descendants themselves). At present Diamant de Sémilly is a great out-crossing opportunity, with his male lineage from Grand Veneur, little used for the moment except in Belgium (Major de la Cour).”

“Diamant was more successful in the stallion shows in Holstein than in St Lô, where none of his many sons were approved in 2007. Some are too big and strong cheeked; this is not necessarily what the SF studbook is looking for today. This being said, some of them will surely be approved on their performances later. At the ages of 2 and 3, the build of a stallion is all-important, afterwards the performance is all. The better the performances, the less the ANSF will criticize any little physical defects. It’s in this spirit that Galoubet or his son, Baloubet du Rouet, or again Quick Star, despite an atypical build, were approved!”

Diamant de Sémilly has steadily moved up the rankings, 9th in 2012, 5th in 2013, 3rd in 2014, and now number one.

Bernard’s prediction that the stallion’s influence would spread across Europe has been borne out. His top scoring foal, Quickly de Kreisker is French bred, out of a mare by the Thoroughbred, Laudanum (who le Courtois rescued from obscurity). Second ranked, Belgian bred Heliodor Hybris is out of a Holsteiner mare, albeit one with considerable French influence since her sire, Cannonball is a son of Cor de la Bryère, out of a grand-daughter of another French import Silbersee. Utamaro d’Ecaussines in 3rd is out of a Belgian mare by Quidam de Revel.

In fact out of the top fifteen jumpers by Diamant, only five are branded Selle Français, while seven are BWP. Three of the fifteen are out of mares by the great Holsteiner stallion Carthago. Highest ranked of these is the currently very hot stallion, Emerald, and he is a wonderful mix, his dam by Carthago, is out of a mare by the Selle Français, Lys de Damen out of a Belgian mare of predominantly Hanoverian breeding.

Second place goes to Kannan (above), pictured here with his most successful jumper, Molly Malone (below)

Second to the ubiquitous Kannan, whose detractors point to the staggering number of mares the French based stallion covers through the world wide distribution network of GFE and the Stallion Company, but there is no denying the ability of his progeny to jump and win at the highest level. Kannan has 88 competitors contributing to his total.

Kannan’s most successful jumper is Molly Malone, who is out of a Dutch mare, Janini (Cavalier / Pion / Komeet – not exactly the breeding that would have you rushing for your cheque book). Three of his top fifteen, including Molly, are AES branded, while eleven are Selle Français.

Cornet Obolensky comes in third place (above), here with son Cornado I (below)

Third to another superstar jumper and super sire, Cornet Obolensky who achieved breeding fame particularly in Westfalia. Despite being bred in Belgium, Cornet was licensed and tested in Münster-Handorf, and as a six year old was the most used stallion in that breeding area. Twelve of his top 15 are Westfalien branded. He too has numbers, 75 jumpers contribute to his ranking.

Fourth to a stallion that many experts dismissed as a competition horse, not a sire, For Pleasure – and even though his breeding career was limited by his very successful competition career, he has certainly proven the doubters wrong. For Pleasure has enjoyed success in a string of studbooks, his top fifteen comprise three Westfaliens, three Selle Français, two Holsteiners, two Hanoverians, two BWP and one each from sBs, Oldenburg and Zangersheide. His three top competitors: Barron (Nabab de Rêve), Fit for Fun (Fabriano) and Flora de Mariposa (Power Light) are all ridden by women.

Fourth is For Pleasure (above), here with one of his top competitors, Barron (below)

Fifth to another stallion whose breeding career looked a little shaky until his foals grew up and started to jump – Baloubet du Rouet. The Selle Français stallion has enjoyed most success in Holland, four of his top 15 are KWPN branded with three Selle Français, three Oldenburg and one Oldenburg Jumping.

Sixth place to the veteran, Heartbreaker with a massive 75 competitors, headed by Bertram Allen’s stallion, Romanov (Fedor). Now there’s a trivia question for you, which rider produced the highest point-earning competitors for two top ten jumping stallions in the one season, before his 21st birthday?

Balou du Rouet makes it to 7th on the standings with his best performer, Babalou (Silvio), a solid performer with Todd Minikus, then Bella Baloubet (Landadel), a WEG competitor with Australia’s Amy Graham, now competing in the US with Kimberly Prince.

**** WHOOPS – silly me, going off the WBFSH list! I knew very well that Bella Baloubet is by Baloubet. I guess someone better tell the WBFSH and take the 900 plus points off Balou’s score which will change the placings. Thank you Tina Donandt for reminding me.

Eighth place to Kashmir van’t Schuffershof with his headliner Kevin Staut’s Reveur de Hurtebise HDC. This son of the recently deceased Nabab de Rêve has been particularly popular in Belgium and seven of his top fifteen are branded BWP and five, sBs.

Ninth place to Casall, the only one of the top ten currently competing, and starring, and his top points earner Casello (Carolus I) recently placed 7th in the Lyon World Cup, with his dad in sixth! The only other stallion I can remember doing that was For Pleasure who shared placings in a few top Grand Prix with his progeny….

Rounding out the top ten we have Chacco-Blue. Not surprisingly, given that he was owned throughout his breeding career by Paul Schockemöhle, the majority of his top fifteen are from Mr Schockemöhle’s studbook, OS – ten out of 15 (please note who-ever prepared the results for the WBFSH that it took me precisely 8.5 seconds to find the studbook for Chacco Boy that you left blank).

Looking at the Eventing Standings, I guess there will be a few hailing the passing of the Thoroughbred with two ‘Warmbloods’ at the top of the list, but they are fooling themselves. It is true that the new number one, Holsteiner, Contendro (Contender / Reichsgraf) is only 45.7% ‘blood’, and that his front-liner, NZB Campino (Pinkus) is just 34.77%, but the Hanoverian gelding is ridden by Mark Todd whose brilliance tends to skew stats. Three of Contendro’s top five are out of mares by Thoroughbreds, two by Heraldik, and I am prepared to bet that when we look at the results of any four star-event in the future, the majority of the horses at the top after the showjumping will be predominantly Thoroughbred…

Number one of the Eventing Standings goes to Contendro (above), featured here with front-liner, NZB Campino (below)

Number two eventing stallion is Ramiro B by the Holsteiner, Calvani out of a Belgian mare by the Hanoverian, Wendekreis – that’s 34.57% blood. Again, to my way of thinking, a touch too much Warmblood, but his top performer, Cooley SRS is out of a Kitely Spring (by the Thoroughbred, Sky boy) mare, and comes in just over half blood, 51.56%.

The great Thoroughbred sire, Heraldik (Caramel / Cale) died ten years ago and his youngest representative on this year’s standings was born in 2006, so he is gently slipping down the tables but we will be seeing his name in the spotlight for a few years yet. His top representative is FEH Butts Avedon ( out of a Kronenkranich xx mare, 63/64ths Thoroughbred, despite the ‘H’ on its bum) and his second highest points scorer is Halunke FBW (Jugol), one of Michael Jung’s frontliners.

And fourth to another great Thoroughbred, Master Imp (Imperius / Hul A Hul) with his top points earner, Boyd Martin’s Master Frisky (Coopers Hill – 82.03%). Master Imp died in 2009, and he too is making a dignified exit…

Back in 2002, I was flipping through Monneron when I saw a photo of Jaguar Mail and did a double take – here was the most beautiful Thoroughbred type, by a proven jumper (and dressage horse) Hand in Glove, out of a mare by the great Thoroughbred jumping sire, Laudanum, with just quarter ‘Warmblood’ – a mix of the two great jumping sires, Almé and Gotthard. I kept saying to my eventing pals, this is the horse to breed with but it was to be another ten or so years before his semen was imported to Australia.

Jaguar Mail (above) and his leading points scorer, Fischertakinou (below)

Jaguar Mail comes in 5th, his leading points scorer, Fischertakinou (Sardana Pierre, solidly Anglo Arab on the mare side) finished fifth at the European Champs in Aachen with Michael Jung. The second and third highest rankers, Radijague (Jalienny) and 2013 World Young Horse champion, Tenareze (Quarter de Plape*HN) are also out of Anglos, and Thomas Carlile told me after he won his world title on Tenareze that he thought a bit of AA snap was necessary to counteract the somewhat lazy front end of the Jaguars.

At the Beijing Games, there was one ‘married couple’ competing, Jaguar Mail in the showjumping, and eventer, Headley Brittania (Jumbo). The two progeny of that liaison, Little Britannia and Britannia’s Mail, occupy 9th and 10th in Jaguar’s team.

Ricardo Z (Rebel II Z / Furioso II) ranks 6th. He is another of the European bred stallions that have flourished with the assistance good Irish mares like Moy View Lady, dam of Ricardo’s top point scorer, Sportfield Othello. Moy View Lady is that tried and true Irish mix, Thoroughbred, in this case Ring of Forde, out of an Irish mare by Ginger Dick.

Stallion number seven is Puissance, like Master Imp by Imperius but out of a grand-daughter of King of Diamonds (that’s 72.85% blood). His best performer is Dromgurriihy Blue, out of a mare by Furisto, the Furioso II son imported to Ireland, out of a half-blood mare.

In eighth we have that grand Thoroughbred, Ghareeb (Dancing Brave / Shirley Heights) with his best Shannodale Shinwil, who is out of a Puissance mare.

Ninth, Courage II, sire of Tim Price’s successful four-star eventer, Ringwood Sky Boy. This is the new Irish recipe, by a Holsteiner (Courage is by Capitol out of a Cor de la Bryére mare) out of a three quarter Thoroughbred mare.

Rounding out our Eventing Top Ten Sires, Ard VDL Douglas – the stallion’s breeding doesn’t shout EVENTING on paper – by Darco out of a Capitol mare (35.35% blood) – but when paired with a Thoroughbred as is the case with his top points earner, Fernhill Pimms (Dublin Taxi xx / Blast xx) it seems to work, since Pimms is a four-star eventer with William Fox-Pitt.

This article first appeared in the January 2016 issue of THM.