HALF of British Eventing (BE) TOP-10 horses and sires are Irish-bred and based, according to its 2019 points-based rankings. These figures are further good news for event horse breeders here, in the wake of topping both the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) and Hippomundo rankings last year.

The cross-channel market is the largest for Irish breeders and the fact that the top two riders - Piggy French, or March as the Badminton winner is now listed on the BE website after her 2019 wedding, and Oliver Townend - earned their places mainly with Irish-breds is a major marketing coup and priceless advertising for Irish Sport Horses.

As an added bonus, three British riders – French, Townend and Pippa Funnell, (ranked seventh on the BE leaderboard) – won half of the worldwide five-star events in 2019 on Irish Sport Horses: Vanir Kamira (Badminton), Cooley Master Class (Kentucky) and MGH Grafton Street (Burghley).

Sharing the top place in last year’s rankings is the gallant Ballaghmor Class, placed first (2017), second (2018) and third (2019) at Burghley over the past three years. One of 33 horses competed by Townend in 2019, according to the BE website, the Courage II 13-year-old has now earned €287,835 in prizemoney and 1,308 points in his career to date.

Ballaghmor Class and another Irish-bred in Quarrycrest Echo are the only two horses to have retained their top-10 places from the 2018 rankings.

Recording the same number of BE points (423) as Ballaghmor Class is the Dutch-bred giant Zagreb, on account of his and Alexander Bragg’s third and fourth place results at Luhmühlen and Pau last season.

Rounding out the Irish-breds in the top-10 are that trio of five-star champions: Vanir Kamira (third), whose breeder Kate Jackson (now Stevens) was profiled last week; MGH Grafton Street (eighth) and Cooley Master Class (10th).

Breeding honours were well spread around the counties between the late Noel Hickey (Limerick), Kate Jackson (Monaghan), John Dooley (Donegal), the late Martin Collins (Tipperary) and John Hagan (Wicklow).

The all-important breeder is now included (where known) on BE’s upgraded website with many Irish Sport Horses having a handy link to their entry on Horse Sport Ireland’s IHR online registry.

With the exception of Quarrycrest Echo, (by the Irish Sport Horse stallion Clover Echo), the other nine top-10 horses are by continental sires. All of the top-10 horses are imports and while that statistic may be disappointing to British breeders, it is good news for their Irish and European counterparts.

What impact Brexit and fluctuating sterling rates have on future trade remains to be seen. Overall, it was another excellent result for Irish breeding in the BE rankings to round off a remarkable year.

Those 180 points earned by MGH Grafton Street after his Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials win pushes his sire OBOS Quality to the top of a closely-packed 2019 sires leaderboard in the BE points category for sires of Novice grade upwards. In the young horse sire division (for four to eight-year-olds), the Trakehner sire Grafenstolz retains his title for a fourth year.

Five Irish-based sires, one more than last year’s figure, feature in the BE points table where Kennedy Equine Centre’s OBOS Quality holds a three point lead over Ars Vivendi (fifth last year), who, in turn, is eight points ahead of third-placed Grafenstolz.

Although Courage II has slipped to fourth place from his number one spot last year, the Holsteiner sire has by far the best strike rate amongst the top-10 sires. His 11 progeny recorded an average of 68 points last season.

Ramiro B has a growing number of UK-foaled progeny coming up through the ranks, although his main point’s earners, including his back-to-back Kentucky winner Cooley Master Class, were foaled on this side of the Irish Sea. The fifth Irish-based sire on the leaderboard is Paddy Quirke’s late Selle Français stallion Harlequin du Carel (10th). Of these Irish-based stallions, OBOS Quality is the sole living sire.

From details supplied by BE’s Renee Groenix, we find that the top-three earners for OBOS Quality are MGH Grafton Street (312 points), Brookfield Quality (107) and Artful Trinity from his 99 recorded progeny, the same figure as Grafenstolz offspring.

The Thomas Merrigan-bred Santiago Bay (156) is Ars Vivendi’s chief earner from 82 runners, followed by Quarry Man (95) and Cuffesgrange Ars Royale (94). Ballaghmor Class (423 points) accounts for 56% of Courage II’s total (750) and another five-star horse in Camembert (112) and Proud Courage (102) complete his top-three performers.

While BE’s ‘All Time sires’ list may be resumed in the future, 2016 was the last year it was released. As it stands, Irish-based stallions feature strongly through Master Imp (second), Cavalier Royale (third), Ricardo Z (sixth), Ghareeb (seventh), Cruising (eighth) and Puissance (ninth).

Topping this list is Jumbo, bred on traditional Irish lines through his Irish Draught sire Skippy and thoroughbred damsire Seven Bells.

Turning to the young horse category and again, 50% of the top-10 stallions here are Irish-based. Grafenstolz’s popularity among British breeders has supplied him with the numbers necessary for a flying start at stud and his 74 offspring averaged 8.62 BE points last year.

Ballymureen Stud is well represented here with Harlequin du Carel (second) and Ars Vivendi (eighth), then OBOS Quality (fourth), Newmarket Venture (ninth) and Womanizer (10th) round off the Irish-based sires of the next generation.

Meneusekal is an interesting newcomer. Sourced as a successor to Fines at Ramon Beca’s Spanish breeding operation, the French-raced grey is the sole thoroughbred seen in this year’s BE top-10 sires and whose points average amongst his half-dozen progeny is the highest of this group at 47.1.

Newmarket Venture features well too with an average of 25.7 points from seven offspring, while just outside the top-10 in 11th place, the thoroughbred Nazar scores a similar strike rate (24.57) from seven runners.

Time will tell if any of these younger horses will advance to five-star and championship level or will ever match a year in which Irish Sport Horses won Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky, believed to be the only Triple Crown win recorded by one studbook.

Top-10 Irish-breds

Equal 1st – BALLAGHMOR CLASS (2007. Courage II (HOLST) – Kilderry Place, by Young Convinced (TB). Breeder: Noel Hickey.

3rd – VANIR KAMIRA (2005. Camiro de Haar Z (ZANG) – Fair Caledonian, by Dixi (TB). Breeder: Kate Jackson.

7th – QUARRYCREST ECHO (2007. Clover Echo (ISH) – Royal China, by Cavalier Royale (HOLST). Breeder: John Dooley.

8th – MGH GRAFTON STREET (2008. O.B.O.S Quality 004 (OLD). Breeder: Martin Collins.

10th – COOLEY MASTER CLASS (2005. Ramiro B (BWP) – The Swallow, by Master Imp (TB). Breeder: John Hagan.