Reflecting decisions made by sport horse breeders back at the beginning of the millennium, there are just four Irish-bred show jumpers among the important top 200 of the latest World Breeding Federation of Sport Horses (WBFSH) rankings. This compares with 38 for the Dutch KWPN and 31 for the Belgian BWP studbooks.

The wonderful 19-year-old son of Cruising, Flexible, still holds his place within the top 100. This stallion, out of a Safari dam bred by Edward and Catherine Doyle, is still a winner for the USA’s Rich Fellers and may well be on his way to one more World Cup final.

Also in the top 100 is the superb Swiss team mare Castlefield Eclipse, who slots into 71st place. She is by OBOS Quality out of a Furisto dam and was bred by Pat Nihil.

Dermott Lennon’s ride Loughview Lou Lou, by Limmerick out of a Jack of Diamonds dam and bred by Judith Sossick, is 129th.

Coming into the top 200 for the first time is our great new team horse Going Global by Guidam Junior out of Ita Brennan’s Cavalier Royale dam Gowran Lady.

At the time that these four were bred, continental blood coverings here stood at around 19%. They almost doubled to a high of 37.5% for the 2014 season. Meantime, thoroughbred coverings dropped from 32.3% in 2000 to 18.3% last year.

The eventing statistics are much more positive. On that WBFSH list, we come out on top with a healthy 35 of the 200. This compares with 14 Hanovarian, 12 KWPN and 11 Selle Français.

There is a very wide variety of sires represented on the top 200 show jumping list. The two most prolific, with nine representatives each, are the Selle Français Diamont de Semilly by Tot de la Semilly and Kannan by Voltaire, sire to Bertram Allen’s Molly Molone.

In terms of dam breeding of the top 200 show jumpers, there is again great variety. Cavalier Royale tops this list with three of his daughters producing a member of this elite group. Matching him is the great Voltaire by Furioso, who also has three. Stallions with two mares include Kannan, Voltaire, Landgraf and Burggraff.

Makeup of The top 200

(as of September 2015)

KWPN (Ned) 38

BWP (Bel) 31

SF (Fra) 28

Holstein (Ger) 18

SBS (Bel) 10

Zangersheide (Bel) 10

Westfalian (Ger) 10

Hanovarian (Ger) 9

Oldenburg (Ger) 8

ISH (Ire) 4

It is interesting that Belgium, with a mare base similar to ours and whose sport horse breeding programme goes back no longer than 50 years, accounts for more of the top 200 than any other bar the Netherlands.

Pre-Christmas CAS date

Cases put forward to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) by legal teams from Horse Sport Ireland and Cian O’Connor in relation to the obstruction of Cian’s horse Good Luck at last August’s European Championships look set to be considered before Christmas. The International Equestrian Federation, which has turned down three previous HSI appeals, has lodged its own papers with CAS.

Lawyers for HSI and Cian O’Connor will be arguing against the awarding of four faults to O’Connor and his horse Good Luck after they had been obstructed by an arena steward in the final team round of the Europeans. This decision denied Ireland a place in next year’s Olympics by less than one penalty point.

Irish chef d’équipe Robert Splaine told The Irish Horse: “I am very hopeful that the case will be heard before Christmas and that there will be a very positive result for Ireland.”

Cameron stars in Stuttgart

Bouncing back from a disappointing outing in Verona last week, Ireland’s Cameron Hanley was among the stars at the Longines World Cup show in Stuttgart last weekend.

Hanley won Saturday’s winning round class with his own Antello Z and then produced two faultless rounds to claim a fourth place finish with Z Acodate DDL in Sunday’s World Cup Grand Prix at the five-star German show. He was first to go clear in just five first-round clears from a top international field of 39 starters.

Second in the jump-off, Hanley and Patrick Mielnik’s 11-year-old mare produced a second superb round but glory went to Germany’s Christian Ahlmann who took top spot, followed by Sweden’s Douglas Lindelow on Casello. Germany’s Patrick Stuhlmeyer was third on Lacan, leaving Hanley just off the podium. Denis Lynch picked up eight faults in the opening round with Abbervail van het Dingeshof.

Stallion owners meeting

Stallion owners gathered in Abbeyleix on Monday to express their views over the recent suspensions of the stallion and mare inspections.

We will carry a report on the meeting, which was organised by the Stallion Owners Society, next week.