The American Saddlebred: June 2017

Today is Father's Day, so why not look at some wonderful Saddlebred fathers. There have been many influential sires over the years and one way of determining the "best" is by looking at the annual sire rating put out by Saddle & Bridle magazine. Their sire rating began in 1932, and in the years before that, they used the Kentucky State Fair winners to determine the most successful stallions. During the 1930's, in the infancy of the sire rating, they used the results of the Kentucky State Fair, but then began adding other shows. The more winners, the higher the rating for the stallion.

It's interesting that many great breed builders never topped the sire rating, but over the course of time have been instrumental in breed development. Others that topped the chart have faded from pedigrees, and certainly from the top line of today's stallions. Being the successful sire of a show horse doesn't guarantee having a successful breeding son or daughter.

So here are the #1 ranked stallions starting with Bourbon King in 1924 and the current winner is Undulata's Nutcracker. Among the missing are Rex Peavine, King's Genius, Bourbon Genius and Callaway's Blue Norther. They definitely appeared on the list, just never topped it.