Susan Finnerty

MASTER Imp has overtaken long-time leader Heraldik to become the leading event horse stallion in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horse (WBFSH) sire rankings, released this week.

And there was further good news with five more Irish-associated stallions included in the eventing sires top 10, including Ghareeb (fourth), Cruising (fifth), Cult Hero (seventh), Ricardo Z (eighth) and Ramiro B (10th).

There were also changes in the show jumping and dressage sires leaderboards, headed by Kannan and Gribaldi respectively. Guidam (22nd) and Lux Z (38th), both with a mix of continental and Irish-born progeny are also in the show jumping sires top-50, while Cruising is the next-ranked Irish-based stallion in 53rd place.

2014 Burghley and Luhmühlen prizewinner Improvise, campaigned by Australian rider Bill Levett, is the highest-ranked of Master Imp’s offspring. The exciting 10-year-old was bred by the Lawlor family in Mullinavat out of a Marwood dam. High Kingdom, also bred on traditional lines by William Micklem, was the next biggest points earner after his silver medal team performance at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games with Zara Phillips.

Not since 2008, when Cavalier Royale headed the WBFSH’s inaugural sire rankings, has an Irish-based stallion achieved this accolade.

“I’m just glad to see Irish breeding, and traditional breeding at that, back at the top,” Slyguff Stud’s Barbara Hatton told The Irish Field yesterday. “It’s interesting also how both the home-bred Master Imp and Balda Beau, the sire of Cambalda who won Fair Hill last month, were not performance tested but still produced the goods.”

Master Imp was bred by the late Loftus O’Neill. Foaled in 1988, the Imperius-sired son was also the most represented stallion at the 2012 London Olympics, three years after the stallion’s death.

Full analysis of the 2014 WBFSH sire rankings in a future issue.