TO recap on last week’s Hippomundo (www.hippomundo.com) feature, it was the best year yet for Irish breeders and the Irish Sport Horse studbook in these rankings.

Pacino Amiro (Pacino - Carnone Dancing Queen, by NC Amiro), finished second in these prize money-based show jumping rankings to Killer Queen VDM. Bred by Donegal’s Simon Scott, Pacino Amiro’s 2022 earnings (€946,710) placed his breeder fifth amongst global show jumping breeders in these rankings, a remarkable achievement.

The Pacino gelding’s results, including a €500,000 paycheque for the Miami Celtics win at Prague, also sealed rider Bertram Allen’s seventh place on the show jumping riders’ leaderboard.

Four more Irish riders were in the top-30, including Conor Swail (Fifth. €1,462,935), Shane Sweetnam (Ninth. €1,135,015), Paul O’Shea (26th. €776,312) and Daniel Coyle (30th. €755,270).

In a further boost for Irish Sport Horse (ISH) breeding, Sweetnam’s top earner was his Aga Khan horse James Kann Cruz. Bred by Patrick Connolly, the Kannan gelding’s earnings also reached the half-a-million euros mark as he finished the year on €549,732. To cap another memorable achievement, James Kann Cruz was his sire Kannan’s leading prize money winner in 2022.

The ISH studbook continues to climb the Hippomundo show jumping rankings and having broken into the top-10 with 10th place in 2021, went one better and finished out last year in ninth place.

As is customary in the Hippomundo eventing rankings, the ISH studbook excelled again with another leading studbook title to complete its clear run. Vanir Kamira’s phenomenal year gave her the leading event horse title for a second year after a previous win in 2019.

Breeder titles

Her results also provided her breeder Kate Stevens with both the overall and UK eventing breeder titles. Bred in Co. Monaghan, when Kate lived there, Vanir Kamira’s sire Camiro de Haar Z took the leading event sire title on account of the year by the brilliant mare.

Two more ISH breeders - Jenny Glynn (seventh) and Maria Keating (10th) - made the Hippomundo eventing breeders top-10 and Jenny was the top-placed Irish event horse breeder.

Capels Hollow Drift (Shannondale Sarco) and Swallow Springs (Chillout), bred by Jenny and Maria respectively, matched their breeder’s placings in the top-10 event horse rankings.

Apart from Vanir Kamira’s eventing crown, the other two top Hippomundo performers last year were Killer Queen VDM (Eldorado van de Zeshoek. €1,049,436) and TSF Dalera BB (Easy Game. €193,947).

Dalera ‘the dancing queen’ was the only horse to complete a World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses (WBFSH) and Hippomundo leading horse double.

It was all change in the Hippomundo leading sires as Camiro de Haar Z (eventing), Diamant de Semilly (show jumping) and Quaterback (dressage) topped the leaderboards once their progeny’s prize money was totalled up.

In addition to Camiro de Haar Z, six Irish-based eventing stallions appeared in the Hippomundo top-30, including Shannondale Sarco (ninth); Chillout (12th), Pacino (22nd), VDL Arkansas (24th), Courage II (27th) and Womanizer (30th). The Diamant de Semilly son Pacino was the sole Irish-based stallion to feature in both the eventing and show jumping (22nd) sires top-30 last year.

That’s the summary, now for some number-crunching.

Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz (ISH), bred by Patrick Connolly, during the 2022 Aga Khan Nations Cup at Dublin Horse Show \ Laurence Dunne Jumpinaction.net .