The great stallion is dead but he has changed the shape of jumping breeding and even managed to open up the once closed Holstein studbook…. We look at his bloodlines, career and legacy…

Jules Mesnildrey bought Venue du Tot, the dam of Le Tot de Semilly from his breeding advisor, Germain Levallois. When he wanted another filly, this time with different blood, he again approached M. Levallois. Germain found Venise des Cresles (who adds another cross of Ultimate to the equation, along with the powerful of influence of Ibrahim through her, sire, Elf III). Levallois offered a free service to Le Tot with the deal.

The mare died giving birth and the breeder wanted to get rid of the foal so he was raised by the Levallois family: “We took it in and bottle-fed it, together with another orphan. The two were always running free in the courtyard and would follow us around like two puppies.”

The foal was Diamant de Sémilly who made the 4, 5 and 6 year old finals at Fontainebleau before going on to a star studded international career, that included playing a key role in the gold medal French team at the WEG in Jerez. Diamant de Sémilly was Champion of France in 2002, and a team silver medalist at the 2003 European Championships.

In 2004, after a good start to the season (winner of Auvers Grand Prix), he had been short listed for Athens Olympic Games, but because of a tendonitis he had to stop competing for a while. He finished the 2005 showjumping season on a high note, winning the two Grand Prix – the CSI*** of Saint-Lô and Caen. In 2006 he won the Belgian Grand Prix in Liége.

Diamant de Sémilly at Jerez in 2002

He began breeding in 1996 and since then has produced: Jalousie Louvo, the 2001 Irish 4 Y.O. Championship winner; Jerminal en Noir who made the top four, six times in 2006 in 1.45/50m classes with Gregory Wathelet; Joyau d’Opal, top six times in 2006 in International 1.45/50 classes including Nations Cup in Rome; Joyau de Bloye ISO 136, named “most beautiful horse” in Fontainebleau 2002, an International competitor with Bruno Broucqsault; Kalaska de Semilly, the 2002 French 4 Year Old champion and placed in 1.40 classes with Latifah Al Maktoum; Kerman de l’Abbaye, the 2003 French 5 Year Old Vice-Champion and winner seven year old class at Fontainebleau. He is also the father of approved stallion Eurocommerce Toulouse.

On the hippomundo data base (1/11/18) Diamant was the sire of 152 jumpers competing at 1.55 level and above!

Breeding your own Eventing Star this season? Go to www.ihb.com.au and find the top lines – like sons and grand sons of Diamant and many more:

Diarado

On the top 100 French Sport Horse stallions of 2006, Diamant de Sémilly came in on 2^nd place, with 260 mares – making him the most popular private stallion in France. With his first crop nine years old in 2006, Bernard le Courtois warns in the 2007/8 Monneron, that the time has come for him to produce a superstar: “He has only a year to go before turning out a star, any longer and breeders are going to cool off. For the moment, five of his products are world classified in the WBSFH, and the best of these is Joyau d’Opal (in 654^th place).”

Nonetheless, breeders continue to flock to Diamant de Sémilly. In the 2007 season, he covered almost 400 mares, 192 more than the 2006 season in France alone, with many more coverings elsewhere in the world.

As Bernard le Courtois pointed out in Monneron 2008 / 2009, Diamant de Semilly represents a valuable outcross:

“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!”

In the magazine le Selle Français (No 16 1^st Trimestre 2013), Bernard le Courtois calculated the top 15 stallions based on the number of CSI winners they had produced in the 2012 season, and Diamant de Sémilly was third on the rankings with seven winners.

On the 2013 WBFSH jumping sire rankings, Diamant de Sémilly had moved from 9^th the previous year to 5^th with 47 representatives earning 7663 points. The most successful was Polinska des Isles (Valespoir Malaby) who with François Mathy Jr, recorded wins at Lexington and Calgary, with placings at most of Europe’s big shows. Second highest went to Quickly de Kreisker (Laudanum xx) whose best placing was a first in a 1.50 Speed and Handiness class at Stuttgart***** with Abdelkebir Quaddar.

On the 2015 WBFSH standings, Diamant de Sémilly was in first place with 92 international competitors, with the most successful Quickly de Kreisker. Not surprisingly, 41 of his team are branded Selle Français, but the Belgian breeders have also been quick to spot his talent as a sire, with 18 branded BWP.

On the 2016 WBFSH standings, Diamant had slipped to 2nd. He was represented by 42 international jumpers, headed by two mega-stars, Don VHP and Emerald NOP – interestingly both are out of mares from ‘foreign’ studbooks, the Hanoverian Voltaire, and the Holsteiner, Carthago.

Z Magazine featured an interview with Éric Levallois who remembered the stallion’s dramatic beginnings:
“Every extraordinary horse comes with a special story. Diamant´s dam died an hour after he was born. The breeder wanted to put the foal to sleep and called my dad with the straightforward message to ‘either come and pick up the foal or he´ll die’, because he wasn´t prepared to raise the foal with the bottle. So next thing, my dad went to pick up Diamant and he did put in the time needed. So yes, if my father hadn´t adopted Diamant we would never have known him.”

At La Baule in 2003

You were already known as a rider with Le Tot de Semilly, Diamant´s sire?

“My father was above all a trader, my brother the breeder and I was the rider. I have always been interested in breeding but I couldn´t combine it with with my sport career. In 1994 I started my own yard, in Beaufour and brought Diamant de Semilly with me when I arrived. I was married and together with my wife started out in breeding. After our divorce she left with the broodmares and all I had left was Diamant. After the WEG in 2002 I purchased a few fillies in Belgium and started from scratch again.”

How did you combine his double career of sport stallion and stud stallion?

“Diamant wasn´t properly started in breeding until he was eight. That was my condition. In my opinion standing stud would have put a mental strain on him and I wasn´t prepared to take that risk. We´ll never know, but if we had used him as a working young stud stallion we might never have made it to World Champion? In my opinion standing stud and sport at high levels don´t go together. The fact that Diamant didn´t commence his stud career until he was eight came with the advantage that he had sufficiently progressed to a competition horse and therefore could keep his focus. He could clearly distinguish sport and training from breeding. This can be rather confusing for young stallions. Zangersheide has managed that really well with Dominator Z. He did a lot of stud services when he was young, but little sport. Now that he´s active in the sport they have cut down on his stud career. That is a good approach because the combination doesn´t work.”

French blood is now well and truly welcomed by German breeders, and the 5th ranked stallion is Diamant de Plaisir, by Diamant de Sémilly out of a For Pleasure / Landor S mare. Bred by Gerd Sosath, he descends from the foundation mare of the Sosath Stud, Fureida (Furioso II / Adrian xx). Diamant de Plaisir competes 1.55m with Holger Wulschner, their best a 5th in a 1.55m GP at Riesenbeck in September 2021.

On the 2019 WBFSH jumping sires rankings, Diamant was in second place, with his best performer, Don VHP Z NOP, but he has almost 150 of his progeny contributing to his position. He is still in 2nd place on the 2020 rankings, with his most successful jumper, Union de la Nutria (Kannan). On the 2021 standings he is second behind Chacco-Blue, with 168 competitors, with two in the top world’s top 20 – 9th placed Antidote de Mars (Jarnac) and 15th Vital Chance de la Roque (Rivage de Poncel).

Asathir and Phillip Weishaupt win the CSI5* of Slovakia
(Longines photo – Marco Villanti)

In April 2020, he is listed on the Hippomundo database with eight 1.65 competitors from a wide variety of mares and bloodlines: Elzas (Cornet Obolensky), Asathir (Papillion Rouge), Don VHP Z (Voltaire), Utamaro d’Ecaussines (Quidam de Revel), Ilex VP (Darco), Pikeur Dylon (Carry 22), Vital Chance de la Roche (Rivage du Poncel) and Twig du Veillon (Tornado d’Hotot). He is also credited with 165 competitors at the 1.60 level.

Competing at the WEG in Caen, Quickly de Kreisker and Abdelkebir Quaddar

Stars at the 2016 World Cup final – Harrie Smolders and Emerald NOP
(out of a Carthago mare)

Diamant is also sire of British eventing team horse, Toledo de Kerser (Diamant de Sémilly / Papillon Rouge) ridden by Tom McEwen. Toledo’s career has been one success after another: Second in the 7year old World Champs, 1st Bramham under 25 CCI****, 12th and team gold at the Tryon WEG, 1st at Pau 5 star in 2019, and Team Gold and Individual Silver at Tokyo.