Gemma Alexander and Christopher Hector analyse the latest Sires’ rankings

You don’t go to the Jumping Sires Rankings in search of new faces. Unlike the dressage breeders, the showjumping breeders tend to use stallions that have thoroughly proven themselves in the sport, which doesn’t make for a lot of movement on the standings.

Chacco-Blue: number one again!

This year there is only one new face in the top ten, Mylord Carthago (Carthago / Jalisco B) up from 25th to 10th. Indeed the top three in a re-run of 2018: Chacco-Blue (Chambertin / Contender), Diamant de Sémilly (Le Tot de Sémilly / Elf III) and Casall (Caretino / Lavall I).

Explosion – super star

Chacco-Blue’s number one competitor is Ben Maher’s out-and-out super star, Explosion W (Baloubet de Rouet), the world number one, and winner of almost two million euros, with 2683 points, almost double the total of Chacco-Blue’s next best, Calisto Blue (Con Air).

The striking thing about the jumping rankings is just how many competitors you need to produce to make it to number one, in Chacco-Blue’s case around 200, where Jazz made it to the top of the dressage rankings with just 19. Of course it helps that Chacco-Blue had access not only to the world’s largest (and arguably best bred) mare band at Paul Schockemöhle’s Gestüt Lewitz, which indeed is where Calisto Blue was foaled.

But Diamant de Sémilly, without the aid of Mr Schockemöhle, was still able to produce 169 competitors to carry him into second spot.

Don VHP Z NOP – best for Diamant

A breakdown of the total number of offspring registered to each of our top 20 sires is shown below:

It is interesting that the top two seem to be producing their performers by finding mares from other studbooks. Two of Chacco-Blue’s top three are out of mares by the Selle Français, Baloubet de Rouet (Galoubet A/Starter), while three of Diamant de Sémilly’s top five, are out of ‘foreign’ mares. His number one, Don VHP Z NOP is out of a mare by the Hanoverian, Voltaire (Furioso II / Gotthard), who was forced to move to Holland to find a home, while her dam is by the Holsteiner, Ramiro (Raimond / Cottage Son xx) out of Tsarina who combines the Thoroughbred Abgar with the Holsteiner Heidelberg. His number two, Venizia D’Aigully, is out of a thoroughly French mare (Quick Star / Pegase Gerbaux) but we are border hopping when we get to number three, Elzas, who is out of a mare by Cornet Obolensky (Clinton / Heartbreaker), a mix of Holstein, KWPN and a touch of Hanover, out of a mare by the Selle Français, Zeus (Arlequin / Matador), whose dam is Hanoverian, albeit by the great Selle Français, Almé (Ibrahim / Ultimate).

Casall – take care of your home base…

The success of the third stallion, Casall  is the Holsteiner formula of old, stick to your own backyard. Of his top 30 performers, 27 are out of mares by Holsteiner stallions, his third placegetter, Caracas (Colman / Barnaul xx) is not given by a studbook listing because he was born in Australia, but his Holsteiner dam, Colthaga was safely in foal to Colman before she jumped on the plane to the other side of the world. Casall’s most successful competitor is H&M Chilli Willi, the winner of four five-star GPs in 2018 with Nicola Phillippaerts. His dam, the Lord daughter, Caletta VIII has produced another 1.60m winner, Camiro, but her daughters have foaled an astonishing number of jumpers.

H&M Chilli Willi with Nicola Phillippaerts

The Belgian bred Toulon, albeit by the great Dutch sire, Heartbreaker, out of a mare by Jokinal de Bornival, ranks fourth, with his best Penelope Leprevost’s 1.60 Grand Prix winning stallion, Vancouver de Lanlore, who is out of a Le Tot de Sémilly mare.

Another Belgian bred stallion, Cornet Obolensky is fifth, he by the Holsteiner, Clinton, with Heartbreaker the dam sire this time. Belgian bred, but licensed in Westfalia, and that breeding area has provided fertile ground for his talents to blossom. Of his top ten performers, six bear the Westfalien brand, with his team headed up by Clooney (Ferragamo) who has been setting the jumping world alight with young Martin Fuchs.

H&M All In and Peder Fredricson 

Kashmir van Schuttershof (Nabab de Rêve / Tenor Manciais) is branded sBs, but his blood is 7/8th Selle Français, with just a touch of the great Gotthard. He has had his success largely with sBs mares, with his top performer, H&M All In, out of an Andiamo (Animo / Garitchou aa) mare. His second ranked, H&M Indiana is out of a mare by another son of Animo, Animo’s Hallo (Wellington).

Number seven in our top ten, Nabab de Rêve was born in Belgium but he is thoroughly Selle Français, by Quidam de Revel out of an Artichaut mare. His best performer, Gravity of Greenhill, which rolls off the tongue easier than his original Gravity van het Haverhof, is out of an Oldenburg mare, Conterno Grande (Contender / Grannus) over Landor S (Landadel / Godehard). His second highest ranked offspring, Jolie vh Molenhof, is also out of a mare by a stallion bred, like Conterno Grande, by one of the first women studmasters, Harli Siefert, Couleur Rubin (Cordalmé Z / Grannus). Alas, like most of the great private studs of Oldenburg, the stud of Harli Seifert is no more.

The Holsteiner, Cardento (Capitol / Lord) was initially shunned by the KWPN licensing committee, and his owner, Wiepke van der Lageweg sent him to Sweden where his success in the sport with Peter Eriksson eventually paved the way for his triumphal return to The Netherlands. His most successful jumper is Farrel, bred at Wiepke’s VDL stud, and once again demonstrating the great breeder’s willingness to look all over Europe for blood, Farel’s dam is the Hanoverian, Becherry, by Stakkato out of a Contendro I mare.

Berlin (Cassini I / Caretino) was a top class performer and is proving an excellent sire. His pacesetter, Bull Run’s Faustino de Tili, is closing in on a million euros in prizemoney with the American, Kristen Vanderveen. Faustino is out of a mare by Darco, out of a mare by the great Thoroughbred jumper and sire, Laudanum.

The new face – Mylord Carthago

Rounding out our top ten we have the only newcomer, Mylord Carthago who is by Carthago (Capitol / Calando I), out of Joris de Bradbander’s superstar broodmare, Fragance de Chalus (Jalisco B / Fury de la Cense). ). Interestingly Fragance has another offspring in this years’ top 100: Bamako de Muze by Darco, making his debut at number 84. Yes, this mare has mothered a significant number of offspring, however it is still some mean feat to have two featuring in the top 100 rankings at the same time.

The average blood percentage of the top 10 jumping sires is almost spot-on 50%, at 49.7%. The most ‘bloody’ of our top 10 in Nabab de Rêve at 60.6%, while Toulon comes in with the lowest at 40.6%.

A super quick analysis of the top 10 back in 2009 reveals an average blood percentage of 43.0%, ranging from a high of 63.3% (Quidam de Revel) to a low of 29.1% (Darco). It would appear that jumping breeders are becoming more shrewd about the ‘sweet spot’ for blood percentages, with a notably smaller fluctuation in this years’ rankings.

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Joris Brabander – breeding magician…

The breeding website, hippomundo, recently analysed the top broodmares (maximum 25 years old) with black type offspring and amazingly the top two mares were both produced by Joris. The number one mare is Cordula de Laubry who is by the great For Pleasure out of Uganda de Lauby by Darco out of a Skippy II mare. Cordula has produced 13 (!) offspring that have jumped 1.45m or higher, with her best performer, Global (by Nabab de Rêve), a 1.65m level competitor with Christian Weier, but she has foaled three other 1.60 jumpers – Fantomas de Muze (Sandro Boy), Igor de Muze (Tinka’s Boy) and Lord de Muze (Nabab de Rêve).

The second most successful broodmare is the recently deceased Narcotique de Muze II (Darco / Chin Chin / Pachat II) who has produced ten horses jumping 1.45 or better with five 1.60 jumpers: Querlybet Hero (Baloubet de Rouet), Loro Piana Boyante de Muze (Kashmir van Schuttershof), Sea Coast Ferly (Calato), Farfelu de la Pomme (Vigo de Arsouilles) and Giovani de la Pomme (Shindler de Muze).

Two more of Joris’s mares make the top ten ranked broodmares: Heroine de Muze (Tinka’s Boy) and Exellentia de Muze (For Pleasure).

Mylord Carthago’s success has been almost entirely with Selle Français mares and with most of his points earners born in 2010 and 2011, his name should make its way up the sires rankings ladder… slowly.

When we re-rank the top 20 sires by their strike rate of producing 1.60m competitors (a simple equation of number of 1.60m competitors divided by number of total offspring – for simplicity we use total offspring rather than breaking down into competition age etc etc etc), Chacco-Blue remains on top with an astonishing strike rate of 9.5%, while 43.7% of his offspring have competed to at least 1.40m. Kashmir van Schuttershof comes in second with a 1.60m strike rate of 8.1%, with 33.9% of offspring reaching a minimum of 1.40m. The strike-rate top five is rounded out by For Pleasure (6.5% / 24.2%), Toulon (5.4% / 26.4%) and Berlin (4.6% / 25.5%).

Of the newcomers to the rankings this year, a number have clearly been bolstered by a single star performer, however three stand out based on the numbers as possible big hitters for the future: Eldorado van de Zeshoek (Clinton / Toulon), Arezzo VDL (Chin Chin / Heartbreaker) and Vagabond de la Pomme (Vigo d’Arsouilles / For Pleasure), all of whom have their oldest offspring reaching 10 years of age in 2019. Eldorado has already produced seven 1.60m competitors, the most exciting of which would have to be Daniel Deusser’s new star Killer Queen VDM (out of a For Pleasure mare), and a staggering 115 competitors already at the 1.40m+ level; Arezzo VDL has four competing at 1.60m and 50 at 1.40m+, and Vagabond de la Pomme has six at 1.60m and 39 at 1.40m+. In an age where stallion options are seemingly endless, with virtually no borders, for three ‘young’ stallions to already be making such a mark is proof that some canny breeders are prepared to think outside the box…

Vagabond de la Pomme – there are some younger sires getting their opportunities…

Chacco-Blue is dead but you can breed to his superb son, Chacco Gold plus more exciting carriers of his bloodline.

He’s just one of the great lineup of sporthorse stallions, available through International Horse Breeders. DETAILS