SPORT horse breeding and politics can produce unlikely results. Take the fact that, in a reminder of the glorious uncertainty of sport horse breeding, three stallion inspection rejects - Big Star, La Biosthetique Sam FBW and Valegro - went on to win gold medals at Rio this summer.

Unlike this week’s US presidential election result however, there were no surprises in the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses sire rankings released this week, as each of last year’s leading stallions – Diamant De Semilly, Contendro I and De Niro – retained their titles in 2016.