A new location, new buyers, but also truly loyal clients that bought live and online. The Flanders Embryo Auction at the CSI-4* Al Shira’aa Horse Show in Abu Dhabi was a great success. The most expensive still unborn foal went for 81,000 euro, two were sold for 48,000 euro and the average price was 28,823 euro. The idea from Luk Van Puymbroeck and Gerald Lenaerts to visit new markets was again proved sound.
The auction started with the sale of a covering from the Al Shira’aa stallions Tsunami de Hus and Chacco Bay which produced an amount of 3,400 euro in charity for Unicef. It was the warming-up for the others to be knocked down by auctioneer Louis De Cleene in the main ring. He got a total of 18 of the 22 embryos sold for good prices. Thirteen embryos were claimed on location, the other five were sold online or by telephone.
With good showmanship, the well-known Prince Marcus von Anhalt created fireworks at the end of the auction. He bid 54,000 euro for the Chacco Blue out of Kirby de Muze (Nabab de Reve), but eventually decided to make it up to 75,000 euro. And when everybody believed that this would be the sales price, the Norwegian Anne Grethe Rihm came with a surprising 77,000 euro bid. The German prince took another leap and bid 81,000 euro which clinched the deal. “An investment in my daughter’s future”, said the businessman with 2.7 million followers on his Facebook page.
Prince Marcus von Anhalt, a great media celebrity, did not go home empty-handed. He bought another two, each for 24,000 euro. The Chacco Blue x Nabab de Reve out of the full sister to Glock’s London and the Diarado x Levistan out of the only half-sister to Chacco Blue.
Anne Grethe Rihm, the mother of Flanders Foal Auction agent Ann-Christin Rihm, also did some shopping. She bought three embryos for her daughter’s breeding program at Grandin Sporthorses in Belgium. These were the Chacco Blue x Diamant de Semilly out of Gatoucha van ‘t Roosakker (48,000 euro), the Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve x Vagabond de la Pomme out of the 1.60m Grand Prix mare J’Adore van het Schaeck (30,000 euro) and the Balou du Reventon x Darco out of the damline of Sapphire (15,000 euro). “We had a plan and managed to realize it. The Balou, though, was not on our list, but we could not let it go for such a bargain price. I am really very happy with these additions to our stables”, says Ann-Christin Rihm.
Al Shira’aa Stables from HH Sheikha Fatima, founder of the international show of Abu Dhabi, also struck gold with three new purchases: the Dominator Z x Chin Chin out of the 1.60m Grand Prix mare VDL Groep Eureka (48,000 euro), the Diamant de Semilly x For Pleasure out of a daughter of Walnut de Muze (32,000 euro) and the Chacco Blue x Taloubet out of the half-sister to Big Star (19,000 euro). The foals will be reared in Great Britain, will be trained there when the time comes and will then travel to the Emirates to pursue their careers to the highest level.
All the prices can be found on www.flandersfoalauction.be