By Christopher Hector
Photography: © FEI; FEI/B. Clark; FEI/L. Law; FEI/Digishots; FEI/M. Clarke

Over the past 30 years, the annual WBFSH stallion rankings have become something of an institution, but as with all institutions, there comes a time when we have to ask – is it still working?

In the early days, the rankings were very heavily weighted for high-level success, thus a stallion like Rebus could be crowned world number one dressage sire on the basis of one star – Rusty – despite not producing anything else of note.
More recently, the wheel seems to have turned full circle, with the horses topping the list – the ones with the most international competitors – not necessarily the sires of the best competitors. In fact, you only have to scroll down to 40th on this year’s dressage rankings to find a stallion who would have been the shining star at the top of the list on those early rankings.

Is it quantity or quality we are measuring?

For example, the Dutch stallion, Johnson (Jazz x Flemmingh) heads the standings again, yet his top competitor, Great Escape Camelot (out of a mare by the Cabochon son, Turbo Magic) ranks only 27th in the world, although he has recently proven just how good he is, when ridden by Raphael Netz, he placed 4th in the Grand Prix and in the Freestyle at Stuttgart, with scores of 72 and 78.
Johnson’s second-ranked offspring, New Zealand team horse, Windermere J’Obei W (Pompeii Court xx) comes in at 41st in the world, and underlines why Johnson progeny are regarded with suspicion by many; they tend to be a bit wild. Indeed Windermere J’Obei W (alias Johnny) was, in the words of his owner/rider, Melissa Galloway “particularly difficult – he was the first horse in Australasia by Johnson. He didn’t get a very good reputation because he bucked and had to go to three breakers. He bucked me off six times in the first six months. He was very difficult.”
Ranked second on the dressage stallions list is Quater-back (Quaterman x Brandenburger), and this one does have elite progeny. Quaterback’s highest point scorer is the 6th ranked Touchdown (Sack), with DSP Quantaz (Hohenstein) just out of the top 10 in 12th.

The next stallion with progeny in the world’s top 10, is the 9th-ranked Bordeaux (United x Gribaldi) represented by world number seven, Bluetooth (Riccione), and world number nine Fame (Rhodium), though there is little doubt they would have been joined in the top 10 by Bohemian (Samarant) if he was still being ridden by Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour. As it is, the gelding ranks 54th with his American rider.
Of recent years, the buzz has been around the new ‘V’ line, but on these 2024 rankings, we find Vivaldi’s best in 46th and he has dropped from 7th last year to 10th, while his influential son, Vitalis in number 11, has Vayron (Gloster) at 8th, though his next best is 64th.

Consider the case of Easy Game (Gribaldi x Schwad-roneur), ranked 40th but the sire of the world’s number one, Dalera (Handryk), and Hermes (Flemmingh), currently ranked 19th, who would have ranked higher, but for injuring himself travelling to the Omaha World Cup.
Easy Game has also established a sire line, through his son, Millennium (Ravel). This is something the rankings stars of the past, like Jazz, Donnerhall, De Niro and Gribaldi did over and over again. However, we are yet to see notable stallion sons of the 2024 champion and reserve.
As usual there has not been a lot of movement in the rankings. Johnson is 1st for the second year running. Quaterback moves from 4th to 2nd, while Blue Hors Zack drops from 2nd to 3rd. Totilas moves up from 6th to 4th and Jazz slips from 3rd to 5th. Apache moves from 8th to 6th and Ampere from 5th to 7th. Bordeaux stays at 9th while Vivaldi drops from 7th to 10th The only newcomer in the top 10 is San Amour I (Sandro Hit x Plaisir d’Amour), up from 12th last year to 8th, with his best product, Jibraltar de Massa (Hohenstein) ranked 141st in the world.
Obviously the initial system that produced one-horse wonders, needed to change. In the very first rankings 1995/96, it was Graditz in 6th, thanks to Gigolo; in 2000/2001, it was Rebus and Rusty; and in the 2002/3 rankings, there were three stallions Freudentanzer, Argument, and Tiro earning their 15 minutes of fame on the basis of one clever foal each. Right now it seems we have gone too far, and the jumping rankings may well show the way out of the dilemma... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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