COMPARED to British Showjumping rankings of 30 years ago, these latest rankings illustrate not only how much breeding patterns have changed but how the sport has since become a six-figure global industry. As another marker of fast-changing developments in the show jumping world, Ursula XII – last year’s leading horse in British Showjumping’s 2016 league – earned more than the combined total (£712,580) won by the top-10 show jumping horses a decade ago.

In fact, the total prize money earned by last year’s top-10 BS horses (£2,560,093) more than trebled the combined 2016 total when Nick Skelton’s Arko III was the top horse. Skelton, one of the sport’s enduring stars, won gold in Rio last summer with Big Star and although the Quick Star stallion’s campaign was curtailed later in the year due to injury, he still brought home £94,619, plus a priceless gold medal, to finish just outside the top 10 in 11th place. Big Star is also listed amongst the 17 Gold British Showjumping Elite stallions, along with the sire and son pair of Arko III and Argento; Michael Whitaker’s Rio Olympic horse Cassionato and Robert Whitaker’s fifth-ranked Catwalk IV.

Skelton featured back in the 1986 rankings with St James, said to be an Irish Sport Horse, along with other Irish-breds such as Towerlands Anglezarke, Next Ryans Son, Viewpoint and Next Warren Point. Thirty years later, Skelton and the Whitaker brothers Michael and John, who still credits Ryans Son as the horse that put him on the international map, are still competing at top level, along with the new show jumping household names of Scott Brash, Billy Twomey and Ben Maher.

Ursula’s biggest paycheque was, of course, the Ahorn mare’s win with the Rolex Grand Slam and Global Champions Tour specialist Brash at the Spruce Meadows Masters Tournament in September. The Scottish pair won the CP International Grand Prix there which set Brash up for another possible Rolex Grand Slam treble after his 2015 feat with Hello Sanctos.

Despite his third place result at the next round in Geneva, won by Pedro Veniss, Ursula XII still added 180,000 Swiss francs to her 2016 takings and the mare, owned by Lady P Harris & Lady P Kirkham, doubles as a flag bearer for the Scottish Sport Horse (SSH) studbook.

Brash announced this week about the sale of his Hello Guv’nor, formerly campaigned here by Hayley Dunne, to American teenager Emma Heise. However with two more horses Hello Forever (second) and Hello M’Lady (ninth) included in the BS top-10, there is no shortage of horsepower in his string.

Both of Cork-born Billy Twomey’s team - Diaghilev (fourth) and Ardcolum Duke (21st) are owner-breds with Joe Flynn’s Gypsy Duke stallion ending 2016 as the leading Irish-bred. Also rated, together with Trevor Breen’s Oldtown KC, as a Silver British Showjumping Elite stallion, Ardcolum Duke is already paying his way this year after scoring a double win at Zurich last weekend.

Golvers Hill (27th), HHS Figero (29th), MHS Washington (30th), last year’s Hickstead Derby winner Glenavadra Brilliant (32nd) and A Touch Imperious (45th) are other Irish-bred performers included in the British top-50.

CLOVER HILL INFLUENCE

Interestingly, another common denominator between past and present rankings is the influence of Clover Hill, whose first offspring, Viewpoint, appears in the 1986 money earners; then he appears 20 years later as both the sire of Robert Smith’s Jerry Maguire III and then the damsire of Ardcolum Duke in 2016.

The same stallion features in the pedigree of Bob’s Diamond, bred in Co Carlow by Billy Griffin. By Golden Trump, the mare’s best result in 2006 was her runner-up place in the Hickstead Derby with David McPherson. This led to her being one of two Irish-breds, along with Jerry Maguire III, in the top-10 that year.

For Pleasure, who retired at Aachen CHIO in 2006 after his world-level career with Lars Nieberg and Marcus Ehning, has since proved an outstanding sire. The late Hanoverian is the only stallion with two progeny - Hello Forever and Ornellaia - featured in the top-10 horses. Another Irish link is the appearance of the KWPN sire Jacomar, who was also based here at Drumhowan Stud. The Ramiro Z son, winner of the 2002 Dublin Grand Prix with Dutch rider Marc Houtzager, produced the Dutch-bred Viking V, campaigned by Michael Whitaker.

One Irish-bred winner alright is I’m A Bird, the recipient of British Showjumping’s Retraining of Racehorses national recognition award. Bred in Co Kildare by Oak Lodge Stud, the Prince Of Birds mare collected £2,500 for her owner Anneli Larsson for this second career achievement.

The bloodstock world’s method of analysing winners and sires purely on winnings is a relatively straightforward one. Last year’s British figures not only show the scale of prize money available internationally but are another set of rankings from 2016 that highlights the scale of purpose-bred show jumping performers produced on the continent.