A CHANGING of the guard is evident in British Eventing’s 2016 sire rankings which, as always, make interesting reading for any eventing breeders. Although no Irish-bred was selected for the British eventing team at the Rio Olympics, 60% of the top-10 horses on the British circuit last year were bred here and while the rankings raise speculation as to future four-star horse bloodlines and leading sires, it was another good year for Irish-based stallions in all categories.

According to BE’s Renee Groenix, of the 10,891 horses that competed in 2016 with season and day passes, 2689 (24.69%) were Irish Sport Horses.

The fact that Irish breeders supply one in four event horses to our nearest and largest market is one to monitor in post-Brexit years.

BE’s all-time leaderboard shows little change with Jumbo now the leading sire for the third successive year, while the greatest sea change is seen in the young horses sire table (four to eight-year-olds) which is headed for the first time by the Trakehner sire Grafenstolz. Points earned by their progeny sees five Irish-based sires in the top-10, however, reflecting millennial breeding patterns, it includes no thoroughbred stallions this year.

Jumbo (see Jumbo Takes Off) overtook longtime leader Cavalier Royale in the all-time rankings, when the rankings changed to allow points gained by offspring at foundation level (BE90, BE100) to be included in their sire’s total. With the Skippy son and his nearest rival Master Imp still having a sizeable number of competition age progeny, this pair look set to dominate the all-time leaderboard in the immediate future.

Best of Jumbo’s progeny last year was Allercombe Ellie, eighth at Badminton with Izzy Taylor, before missing out on the Rio Olympics through injury. Bill Levett’s Improvise, bred by the late Patrick and Anastasia Lawlor, led Master Imp’s offspring while the Sean Greer-bred ODT Ghareeb was the top BE points earner for his sire Ghareeb, the second Irish thoroughbred featuring in the top-three.

The young horses sire table is a different picture with several new names in the top-10, led by Grafenstolz, who in his competition years won the six-year-old championship at Le Lion d’Angers with Michael Jung.

His popularity with British breeders has seen a stream of progeny emerging in young horse classes, while Chilli Morning, who left William Fox-Pitt’s yard last week for a full-time stud career is another sure to prove increasingly popular on the home market. Unsurprisingly, Chilli Morning, the only stallion to win Badminton, topped the 2016 competing stallions division.

OBOS Quality 004 and Shannondale Sarco St Ghyvaan are Grafenstolz’s closely-bunched nearest rivals, with Ars Vivendi, Lux Z and Lancelot completing the current Irish-based top 10 sires of young horses.

Although there was no Irish-bred four-star winner in 2016, the Courage II-sired Ringwood Sky Boy came close with fourth place at Burghley, following his runner-up place there in 2015. Bred in Co. Wexford by the late Myles Mahon, his form last year with Tim Price sees him as the highest Irish-bred (third) in last year’s top-10 horses, followed by One Two Many (fourth), Annie Clover (fifth), ODT Ghareeb (eighth), Paulank Brockagh (ninth) and The Highland Prince (10th).

Six Irish-breds filling the BE top-10 counts as the best result in recent years, with only Ringwood Sky Boy making the cut last year.

The changing world of event horse breeding, coupled with changes to the sport up to Olympic level, will continue to impact sire rankings, however for 2016, the British Eventing rankings have produced strong results for both Irish-based stallions and Irish-bred performers.

JUMBO TAKES OFF

Jumbo once again dominates the British Eventing sire rankings and the late sire, who stood at Carolyn Bates’s Grafham Stud for his stud career until his death in 2015, was a prime example of a performance tested stallion. He was bred from traditional Irish bloodlines by the late Archie Smith-Maxwell, who spoke in 2011 about Jumbo and his sire Skippy, for an Irish Field article.

Smith-Maxwell, a longtime supporter of Irish breeding was looking for a potential broodmare stallion and had found Skippy in Balla, Co Mayo where he bought him from the Niland family.

“I was looking for a stallion to improve broodmares. They pushed the bushes off the post and rails, called him and he just trotted up and popped it!” I liked everything about him; his outlook - he looked around as if to say ‘I’m here!’ - his length of rein, wonderful shoulder, short cannons, dark feet. His offspring sold like hot cakes while he altered the broodmares around here within four years,” he said about Jumbo’s future sire.

Jumbo’s dam was sourced closer to home. “I found his dam, Betty, in the next village, she’d have won any broodmare class. A good broodmare should look like a true middleweight, not a carthorse or a hack. I thought Seven Bells [her thoroughbred damsire] was a particularly sound horse.”

Sold as a foal to Carolyn Bates at the Hunter Improvement Society foal sale in Malvern for “quite a decent sum”, the colt, with his mixture of Legaun Prince, Final Problem and Seven Bells bloodlines, made an impression on his breeder. “Jumbo was an enormous foal, colossal bone with great movement. He was an awful shade of elephant grey so we named him Beeston Jumbo Jet,” recalled Archie, explaining how the stallion was named.

Andrew Nicholson competed Jumbo (to advanced level and at Le Lion d’Angers where he was the highest-placed seven-year-old before the world championship age format began there) and the thoroughbred mare, Bairn Free. She later produced another of Jumbo’s best-known offspring in the late Avebury, who recorded three back-to-back Burghley wins for Nicholson and amassed 2,113 BE points before the legendary grey’s retirement last year.

Jumbo was one of the most successful sires of four-star winners in eventing history. His brilliant daughter Headley Britannia won at Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky for Lucinda Fredericks. “Quietly pleased” was Smith-Maxwell’s response to the mare’s Badminton win and Jumbo’s leading sire treble has added to his modest breeder’s legacy to event horse breeding.

Several Irish breeders have used Jumbo, including Kate Jarvey and Paula Cullen, who has used him for Paulank Brockagh’s half-sister, Paulank Calla Lily.

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