Undulata's Nutcracker foaled in 2001, and celebrated his 20th birthday this year. He has lead the Saddle & Bridle Sire rating for nine straight years since 2013 with absolutely no end in sight. His sire CH Caramac lead the rating for three years and another Caramac son, Designed, has been in the Top 5 stallions for 10 years which just ended with his recent death. When did Undulata's Nutcracker crack the Sire Rating for the first time? Who are other long term residents of the top five? Let's take a look.
The Saddle & Bridle Sire Rating is published in February each year, and has been since the mid 1930's, but is based on the show records for each stallion's offspring from the previous year. So, we'll start with the Sire Rating from 2002 which uses the data from 2001, the year Undulata's Nutcracker foaled. It's interesting to watch the trends, the repeaters and the legends. The actual sire rating lists the top 50 stallions, but this list only shows the top 5. An asterisk* indicates a sire's last year on the list because they were deceased and moved to the deceased sire listing for the following year.
2002 1. Supreme Heir, 2. Champagne Fizz *, 3. Caramac 4. Sultan's Great Day 5. Harlem Globetrotter
2003 1. Supreme Heir 2. Caramac 3. Sultan's Great Day 4. Harlem Globetrotter 5. Phi Slama Jama
2004 1. Supreme Heir* 2. Caramac 3. Sultan's Great Day* 4. Harlem Globetrotter 5. Catalyst
2005 1. Caramac 2. The King of Highpoint* 3. Periaptor 4. Harlem Globetrotter 5. Phi Slama Jama
2006 1. Caramac 2. Periaptor 3. Harlem Globetrotter 4. Catalyst 5. Merchant Prince
2007 1. Periaptor 2. Caramac 3. Merchant Prince 4. Harlem Globetrotter 5. CF First Night Out
2008 1 Caramac 2. Periaptor 3. Callaway's Blue Norther 4. Harlem Globetrotter 5. Merchant Prince
2009 1. CF First Night Out 2. Periaptor 3. Caramac* 4. Callaways Blue Norther* 5. Santana's Charm*
2010 1. CF First Night Out 2. Catalyst* 3. Periaptor 4. I'm a New Yorker 5. Harlem Globetrotter (Sir William Robert first appeared at #15 in 2010)
2011 1. CF First Night Out* 2. Periaptor 3. I'm A New Yorker 4. Merchant Prince 5. Gypsy Santana (Sir William Robert was #10 and Undulata's Nutcracker first appeared at #13 in 2011)
2012 1. Sir William Robert 2. Undulata's Nutcracker 3. I'm A New Yorker*4. Periaptor 5. Designed
2013 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Designed 3. Sir William Robert 4. Gypsy Santana 5. Periaptor
2014 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Sir William Robert 3. Designed 4. Periaptor* 5. Desert's Supreme Memories
2015 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Designed 3. Sir William Robert 4. Attache's Royal Asset 5. Callaway's Northern Kiss
2016 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Sir William Robert 3. Designed 4. Callaway's Northern Kiss 5. Attache's Royal Asset
2017 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Sir William Robert 3. Designed 4. Callaway's Northern Kiss 5. The Mystery Writer
2018 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Sir William Robert 3. Designed 4. Callaway's Northern Kiss 5. The Mystery Writer
2019 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Sir William Robert 3. Designed 4. Callaway's Northern Kiss 5. The Mystery Writer
2020 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Designed 3. Sir William Robert 4. Callaway's Northern Kiss 5. Undulata's Heir Apparent
2021 1. Undulata's Nutcracker 2. Callaway's Northern Kiss 3. Sir William Robert 4. Designed* 5. I'm First
For this 20 year time period, Undulata's Nutcracker was in the top spot nine times. The next closest stallions were ranked in first place for three years each. They were Supreme Heir (he also was #1 in 2000 and 2001), Caramac, and CF First Night Out. Also earning the top honors once apiece were Sir William Robert and Periaptor. Not every horse can be in first place, but top five honors were won multiple times by a number of sires. Undulata's Nutcracker, Designed, Sir William Robert and Periaptor each had 10 times in the Top Five, Caramac and Harlem Globetrotter earned eight trips to the Top Five and Callaway's Northern Kiss has been there on seven occasions. This shows amazing consistency by these stallions to earn these top rankings year after year during this 20 year time frame.
Now for some pictures of these top sires, and a mention of a few of their winners.
Undulata's Nutcracker
Sired by Caramac, a former #1 sire
His get include WGC's CH Don O'Neill, CH Lady Mandolin, CH Macadamia, HS Daydream's Headsup, Nutcracker's Nirvana, Soul Desire and The Crowd Wents Nuts.
Also included are full brothers who are RWGC, We Must be Nuts and We Must Really be Nuts.
Designed
Sired by Caramac
His get include RWGC's CH Swing an Singin and CH Glenview's Excellante
Sir William Robert
Sired by Santana's Charm
His get include WGC Sir Silver Night, RWGC CH Let's Talk and WC CH HS Baby Steps
Periaptor
Sired by Courageous Admiral
He sired WGC CH Platinum Moon
CH Caramac
Sired by Will Shriver
He sired WGC CH Callaway's Annabel Allisonn.
He has also sired 7 BHF's including Callaway's Zerelda and Callaway's Carousel
Harlem Globetrotter
Sired by New Yorker
His get include WGC CH Garland's Dream BHF
Callaway's Northern Kiss
Sired by Callaway's Blue Norther
Among his get is WC CH Heir to a Kiss
CF First Night Out
He was sired by Night Prowler
He sired WGC CH Yes it's True and RWGC CH Honey Badger
Merchant Prince
He was sired by Mountain Highland Memories
Among his get are full siblings WGC CH A Sweet Treat and RWGC CH Rejoice
Catalyst
He was a grandson of New Yorker
Among his get are CH Colonel Hoss and WC CH Last Cat Standing
I'm A New Yorker
was sired by New Yorker
He sired WC CH Freaky Links and CH Caraway's New York Minute
Sultan's Great Day
He was sired by Supreme Sultan
His get include WGC's CH Along Came A Spider, CH Simply Mahvelous,
CH The Daily Lottery and CH Winter Day
Supreme Heir
He was another sired by Supreme Sultan
He topped the Sire Rating for 5 years from 2000 to 2004
Among his get are WGC CH An Heir About Her BHF,
6 time WGC CH Callaway's Copyright and WGC CH One For the Road
The Mystery Writer
Was also sired by Callaway's Blue Norther who topped the sire rating himself.
Among his get is WC CH Cloverleaf Freedom Writer
Attache's Royal Assets
His grandsire was Attache
His best get includes WC CH Divine Asset
Callaway's Blue Norther
Sired by Will Shriver
Among his many get are WGC CH Callaway's Forecaster
and WC CH Callaway's Born to Win
Gypsy Santana
His sire was Sultan's Santana
His get include WC CH A Cinderella Story and WC CH Expresso Noir
Phi Slama Jama
He traced to Ridgefield's Genius on his sire line
He sired WC CH It's Phi Day and WC Ampli Phi
and a lot of other Phi's.
Champagne Fizz
Sired by Supreme Sultan
He sired WC CH Heir to Champagne
Desert's Supreme Memories
He is a grandson of Courageous Admiral
He sired WGC CH Real Action, WC CH Bono
and WC CH Memories of Cabo
I'm First
He was sired by former #1 sire CF First Night Out
He sired WC Walterway's Why Not Me
Santana's Charm
Sired by Sultan's Santana
He sired WGC CH Our Charming Lady BHF and WC CH Amusing
CH The King of Highpoint
He was a grandson of Supreme Sultan
Among his get were WC CH Cherished King and WC CH Coco Loco
Undulata's Heir Apparent
He is sired by #1 sire Undulata's Nutcracker
Among his get are WC My Christmas Prince
Many of these top sires were World's Champions themselves, including Supreme Heir, CH Carmac, Sultan's Great Day, Harlem Globetrotter, CH The King of Highpoint, Merchant Prince, Callaway's Blue Norther, Santana's Charm, Desert's Supreme Memories, Undulata's Heir Apparent, I'm First, Designed and Sir William Robert. Reserve World's Champions in this group were CF First Night Out and I'm a New Yorker. It's also interesting that at the beginning of the 2000's, Supreme Sultan and his son Sultan's Santana were dominant sires of those on the list. This gave was to the Wing Commander sire lines of New Yorker, Attache, Courageous Admiral and of course, Will Shriver.
Undulata's Nutcracker seems to hold clear title to the #1 sire position for the foreseeable future. He has tons of sons, but like Supreme Sultan and Wing Commander, not all of the sons will succeed in the breeding shed. Only time will tell.
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Since the last two posts were about Bourbon King and Rex Peavine, rivals from a century ago, I counted the crosses to each of these stallions on Undulata's Nutcracker's 9 generation pedigree. Rex Peavine won hands down, 40 times to 29 times for Bourbon King. Never under estimate the bottom line.