Susan Finnerty
With the latest pre-Olympic rankings, (up to July 31st) showing the Irish Sport Horse studbook maintains a slim lead in the eventing category, results from the Rio 2016 Olympics may play a major part in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) final rankings for 2016.
The fact that three Irish-bred horses finished in the top 10 at Deodoro may be crucial to retaining its WBFSH title, first won in 1994.
The US team horse Mighty Nice held his position as the highest-placed (eighth) Irish-bred event horse in the July rankings, followed by Fernhill Fugitive (27th), One Two Many (29th), Barraduff (39th), Cooley Rorkes Drift (47th) and MHS King Joules (51st).
Adding the individual bronze medal result of Mighty Nice, bred by William Kells, to the fourth and ninth places at Rio of Paulank Brockagh and Cooley Rorkes Drift, bred by Paula Cullen and William McCarrison respectively, strengthens the ISH studbook’s hope of retaining another WBFSH title.
Olympic and championship level results have played an influential role in the final rankings, announced each October and with autumn events, including four-star Burghley, still to add, it will be a tight finish.
Only twice in the 23-year history of WBFSH rankings, has the ISH studbook not taken the eventing title. Results from the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky and 2011 European Championships proved pivotal in the Hanoverian Verband and Selle Francais overtaking the ISH in those years (2010, 2011). At the last Olympic Games in London, 40% of the top-10 individual event horses – Imperial Cavalier (fifth), Master Crusoe (seventh), High Kingdom (eighth) and Mr Medicott (ninth) – were Irish-breds. And while the Rio results will also have an impact on the 2016 eventing sire rankings, the late John Shorten’s German export Stan The Man has already rewritten Olympic breeding records as the sire of three individual gold medal winners: Shear L’Eau (2004) and La Biosthetique Sam (2012, 2016).
The show jumping studbook title race is equally fascinating with long-time titleholders KWPN in fifth place in the July rankings. However, the Olympic individual gold medal won by the lightly-campaigned Big Star is a huge boost to the Dutch studbook, which is adept in marketing such high-profile wins.
Likewise, the Belgian studbook SBS (ninth in the July rankings) and Hanoverian Verband (sixth) will similarly benefit from promoting the strong performances of H&M All In (individual silver) and Fine Lady 5 (individual bronze).
Currently leading the show jumping studbook rankings is the Holsteiner Verband, (6,294 points), which also features in the top-three in the eventing leaderboard.
Just 64 points behind is the Zangersheide studbook, (6,230), continuing its upward climb from tenth in the overall rankings last year, and then the second Belgian studbook, the BWP (6,201).
The ISH studbook (3,181 points) remains in 14th place in the July rankings with the best WBFSH Irish-bred performer being Lorenzo de Luca’s Dublin winner Limestone Grey, bred by David Moran. Special Lux, Loughview Lou-Lou, Guru, Rio campaigner MHS Going Global and the indomitable Flexible round out the ISH team. Loughview Lou-Lou’s impressive Grand Prix win at Gijon this week will be an additional boost for the next rankings.
The KWPN lead one category, topping the July dressage rankings ahead of the Hanoverian, Westfalian, Oldenburg and Danish studbooks. Interestingly, the current top-three WBFSH-ranked individual performers Weihegold OLD, Showtime FRH and Desperados FRH, all carrying their breed suffixes, were on the victorious German team at Rio.