Christopher Hector is on the spot in chilly s’Hertogenbosch while Gemma Alexander crunches the numbers in sunny Western Australia…

Photos – Jacob Melissen and Digishots

Oldies are goodies… looking at the line-up of jumping colts at the KWPN stallion show in s’Hertogenbosch, the dominating influence is the now twenty-one-year old, Belgian bred, Westfalien licensed, Ukranian domiciled, Cornet Obolensky (Clinton / Heartbreaker) with five sons, while his son, Comme il faut (2005), out of one of the most famous jumping mares of all time, Ratina Z (Ramiro / Almé) has four. It would seem that despite the multitude of embryo transplants, not to mention clones, only two progeny of Ratina made it to 1.60m, Comme il faut, who is an undisputed star with Marcus Ehning, while the other Crown Z (Carthago) jumped mainly 1.45 / 1.50, with one 1.60 appearance for a 4th at Mechelen in 2013.

Comme il faut and Marcus Ehning

There are six sires with three each. Grandorado TN by Eldorado van de Zeshoek (Clinton / Toulon) out of a Carolus II / Baloubet du Rouet mare. Grandorado (2011) competes up to 1.50 with Willem Greve, and at Amsterdam, the weekend before the stallion show he was ninth in a 1.45 accumulator. As a sire, Grandorado has been a success right from the start, with his progeny winning all the freejumping competitions as well as starring in the mare shows.

Grandorado’s son, number 128 (out of an Indoctro mare) is actually half owned by Willem Greve, who rode Grandorado’s sire Eldorado van de Zeshoek.

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Grandorado

Harley VDL (Heartbreaker / Carthago / Caletto I) was a modestly successful competitor with Jessica Kürten, up to 1.55, they won two 1.45 classes in 2011, Harley’s last year of competition.

Another with three is Impressive VDL (2013 – Douglas (Darco) / Contender / Corofino I) but he is only seven so we can’t expect big sport results.

Aganix du Seigneur (2006) is sBs branded, by Ogano Sitte (Darco) out of a Chellano Z / Aramis de la Cense mare. Aganix competed with Jos Lansink, mainly 1.45 / 1.50 just one 1.60 result at Mannheim in May 2015, five faults for 34th, then he was injured and sold to Zangersheide, where he bred many many mares.

Aganix du Seigneur

Inaico VDL (2013 – Indoctro / Baloubet de Rouet / Hercos) jumped 1.35 last year with Alex Gill but he too is only seven.

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The other with three is Dominator 2000 Z (Diamant de Sémilly / Cassini I). Dominator comes into the stallion show with the best current form with a second in the five star World Cup qualifier in Liepzig, a week or so ago.

Dominator 2000 Z

While only having three direct offspring in the lineup, the French Diamant de Sémilly (Le Tot de Semilly / Elf III) is undoubtedly one of the strongest influencers of this year’s stallions with nine grandchildren and further appearances in the third and fourth generations of a number of the competitors.

Other stallions to have a significant influence are Indoctro (Capitol I/ Caletto II) with eight grandchildren, Clinton (Corrado I / Masetto) with seven, Heartbreaker (Nimmerdor / Silvano) with five grandchildren and the young supersire Eldorado van de Zeshoek (Clinton / Toulon) with one direct offspring and four grandchildren.

On the first day of the selections the top German sire, Stakkato Gold (Stakkato / Werther) has two go through: Mister Gold GPH (Zirocco Blue VDL) and Mies H (Baloubet du Rouet) – as does Kannan with Macho Man (Numero Uno) and Messini de F (Carolus II).

There are also two selected by Ibolensky (Cornet Obolensky / Contender / Nimmerdor) which is pretty amazing, since they are bred by the stallion’s breeder before the young stallion finished his performance test, two out of two foals, 100% – one out of a Calvaro mare, the other out of a Heartbreaker. No wonder jumping breeding fans eagerly await his first ‘real’ crop next year.

And there are three by the great Cornet Obolensky who will go into the performance test: Cornet de Regor DM Z (Kannan), Mr Obolensky VG (Indoctro) and a VDL representative, Mr Cornet VG (Indoctro again). Mr Cornet VG is crowned a premium stallion of the first day.

Dominator / Padinus – fancy!

There is quite a few spectators who feel that the star has been the Dominator 2000 Z colt, Number 84, Defender VDS Z, out of a Padinus / Calvados / Le Mexico mare. The black stallion was truly spectacular, in a nice way.

Another Dominator, this time out of a Numero Uno mare

Number 83, also by Dominator 2000 Z but this time out of a Numero Uno / Nimmerdor / Lucky Boy xx was also pretty special, and he too is selected to go on to the next round in the selection process.

Dominator 2000 Z has perhaps had the odds stacked with him, breeding up to 600 mares in the early years of his time at Zangersheide. Although in 2018 the decision was made to cut back his breeding to two months a year to concentrate on his competition career for which, one hopes, Christian Ahlmann is truly grateful.

Out of the first group on the second day, three by are approved. Chac On JT Z (Chacoon Blue / Air Jordan) and two by Aganix du Seigneur. Aganix is another sire with form, two weeks ago his son, Lambade Shake AG (Spartacus), out of his first crop, won the performance test, scoring 90 out of 100, only the second stallion to achieve this score. At least one of his first offspring is already jumping 1.50. His three to go through to the performance test are Amant Keizersberg Z (Diamant de Semilly /Calvin), Amoretto Red Wine (Clearway / Little Rock) and Mindset ES (Kannan) one of four to be awarded a premium on the second day.

Amant Keizersberg Z, by Aganix out of a Diamant de Sémilly

The most spectacular colt in the second group is Mattias by Comme il faut out of a Catoki / Berlin mare. The grey seems to have unlimited scope, but is perhaps a little too spectacular, with the Commission deciding that because of that, they were happy to see him go on to the performance test, but no premium on the day.

Matthias – spectacular – too spectacular?

Comme il faut already had three licensed sons in the KWPN, with Komme Cassall (Casall) something of a star, winning his performance test.

The Zirroco Blue colt, Meaestro, out of a Verdi / Ferro (remember he was a showjumper before he became a dressage star) / Lucky Boy xx, is selected to go on to the performance test, joining the other Zirroco Blue, the five-year-old King Blue (Andiamo / Indoctro / Nimmerdor), who after appearing under saddle was invited to take part in the free jumping.

The eight-year-old Heathrow is another new face on the stallion scene. He is by the Belgian sire, Der Senaat III (President / Burggraaf) who had one 1.60 appearance with the Chinese rider, Jacqueline Lai at Hong Kong 5 star in 2017, although they did not finish the course. Heathrow is out of a Dollar de la Pierre / Libero H mare. Last December, Heathrow was sold to Anky van Grunsven’s nephew, Jens, and the pair are competing 1.35. Heathrow has not bred many mares, but the two he presented at Den Bosch were elegant, classy types, and both of his colts were selected: Missouri (Vingino) and Manden I Sonderbygaard (Cavalier), with Manden awarded a premium, which caused just a little controversy, since the youngster seemed to have been very ‘tuned’.

Missouri by Heathrow out of a Vingino mare

Impressive VDL really seems to put jump on them, like this colt…

My Favorite by Impressive VDL out of a Quasimodo vd Molendreef mare

Inaico is a full brother to Scott Brash’s Hello My Lady (Indoctro / Baloubet du Rouet) and I trust by now you have gathered that Dutch stallions whose names begin with the letter ‘i’ are seven years old. He puts two out of two into the performance test: Malando W (Emilion / Tangelo xx / Jasper) and Monsieur VDL (Emilion / Contender / Landgraf), with Monsieur into the championship ring.

Malando W – goes back to Jasper, known as Little One when he competed
with Hugo Simon because he was only 160 cm!

All in all, 39 colts will go into the now 35-day performance test while this year, there will be no champion out of the premium ring, the five will get the opportunity to show off their trot. It’s a wise move since in the past, the relationship between trot and jumping ability is not immediately obvious…

Want to breed your own jumping star? Check out the wonderful stallions available via frozen semen at International Horse Breeders…