MASTER Imp has added a second leading sire title from 2014 to his record with the publication of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) rankings.

The Imperius son has moved up from his 2013 fourth place to top the American eventing sire leaderboard for the first time. This matches a similar historic result recorded by him in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horse (WBFSH) sire rankings last year.

And in a bright start for Irish event horse breeding in 2015, the Irish Sport Horse stallion Coevers Diamond Boy finished second in this category in the transatlantic rankings.

MASTER FRISKY

Chief points earner for the WBFSH and USEF dual leading stallion is the Sean Power-bred Master Frisky, second in the Fair Hill International CCI*** last October.

Both this 11-year-old and Trading Aces, the best of Coevers Diamond Boy’s offspring, are campaigned by Boyd Martin, although following his injury last spring, Philip Dutton partnered Trading Aces to eighth place in the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in May. Trading Aces was bred by Patrick Minogue.

Ballynoe Castle RM, Trading Aces’ American teammate at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, heads the list of his sire Ramiro B’s USEF progeny. Bred by Sylvester Cullen, his Harthill Stud-based sire lies in seventh place. Just outside the top-10 is Windchase Farm’s Irish import Brandenburg’s Windstar (11th) by I’m A Star.

GUIDAM

Guidam, who spent his later years in Ireland, is in second place in the USEF show jumping sire rankings, chiefly through Jessica Springsteen’s Dutch-bred Nations Cup horse Vindicat W. The evergreen Flexible was the main points earner with Rich Fellers for his sire Cruising, which contributed to the Hartwell Stud’s Irish Sport Horse sire 12th place.

“I am delighted to see that traditional Irish breeding is still proving the best and for the breeders of those horses,” commented Slyguff Stud’s Barbara Hatton yesterday.

“There’s already been lots of enquiries about Golden Master [Master Imp’s only thoroughbred stallion son] since the world rankings news so those bloodlines continue.”