Stakkato

World’s greatest showjumping sire Stakkato, the modern genius of Hanover.  Stakkato, “King” of the Budeschampionship.  In 1998 he was the first horse to score 9.9 at the Bundeschampionship and became undisputed winner.  He was a sensation that year and everyone had “Stakkato” on their lips, even the dressage breeders took note, such was the awe surrounding this stallion.  In 1999 he was to return and this time he took the vice champions ribbon.

Who was this stallion?  It soon became clear he was something special.  His lineage was from the old “S” line.  A line that had since declined in use, but how it was to return!  The “S” line was founded from the sire known as Semper Idem born in 1934.  It was however Semper Idem’s son Senator (1951) that saw the “S” line take off in popularity.  The line is represented by Servus, Sender, Saloniki and Sesam.  Stakkato’s sire Spartan was almost lost to German breeders.  He was sold as a foal to the USA and returned to be performance tested in Germany, scoring overall 122 points.  He spent many years in Canada and the USA in a sports and breeding capacity and was well known for his ability to win difficule competitions over the jumps and Grand Prix.  He finally returned to Germany to serve out his breeding days and in 1992 served a mare named Pia and the resulting foal would have an impact on not only jumping sport but breeding as well as no one could have predicted.

Pia was by Pygmalion who has considerable Trakehner blood and goes back to the Absatz line.  Interestingly on both the sire and dam line you find the heritable “G” line in Gotthard and Goldstern.  Both sires had outstanding influence on the Hanoverian jumping line.

Stakkato began his sport and siring career simultaneously.  He is described as a medium framed stallion with very good style over the jumps and also has a high rideability factor as evidenced by his rideability index at his performance test.  He won the jumping index with a very impressive score of 144 points and was third overall (131 points).  In a highly unusual move Celle sold a 50% share in the stallion to the Bitter stables in Essen.  This proved to be an excellent partnership with Eva-Maria Bitter guiding the stallion to wins at the Hanoverian riding horse championships in Dobrock and the Bundeschampionship in Warendorf.  This began a successful showjumping career that has seen many wins and placings up to Grand Prix and Nations Cup including a second place at the Hamburg Grand Prix in 2003.

Not only in the sport arena is this stallion a genius, his heritability is unquestionable.  Already he has sired 14 licensed sons, 21 state premium mares, 45 auction horses and his progeny has total winnings over 80,000 Euros.  He has a breeding value index for jumping of 178 and led the FN breeding rankings five years in a row as Germany’s top jumping sire.  Landgestuet Celle has recruited four of his sons to stand at their impressive breeding farms in Germany, Satisfaction, Salito, Stand Up and Stolzenberg.  Satisfaction at his stallion performance test scored a similar mark for both jumping and dressage and placed seventh overall.  Salito had an outstanding jumping win at his stallion performance test scoring an impressive 133 points and winning that section.  Stand Up was second to Salito in the jumping portion of the performance test scoring 128 points for jumping and finishing fourth overall.  Stolzenberg finished an impressive second overall at the 2002 test and won the jumping portion with a score of nearly 142 points.

However, Stakkato’s siring capabilites is not only limited to the Celle State Stud but he has made an impact on the private studs as well.  Gestuet Sprehe has two outstanding jumpers by Stakkato, Stakkato Gold and Stalypso.  Stakkato Gold was “Best Jumper Stallion of the Year 2003” at the approvals in Verden.  At his 30 day test he scored 9.33 in jumping and proved he could move as well scoring 8.52 for rideability.  Stalypso won his 30 day test with an overall score of 8.95 but it was his jumping score of 9.88 that identified his supreme jumping ability.

Stakkato truly is a phenomenal showjumping sensation!