The Flanders Foal Auction team has set up shop at the embryo auction on Saturday evening, February 21, at the MET Oliva and has already discovered six horses that were once auctioned off by „Flanders” as foals. Nibali (Casallo Z x Balou du Rouet), for example, is one of the best eight-year-old show jumping horses on the European tournament scene. He has already jumped flawlessly in his first 1.45 m ranking trials and yesterday placed fourth in the 1.45 m opening trial with Mariano Martínez Bastida.
Immediately after the jump, Flanders team member Mark Oude Griep took the opportunity to saddle his self-bred horse. „Nibali is the very first foal I have sold through the Flanders Foal Auction,” says Mark, who has been involved in the selection of foals and embryos for eight years. „I follow his development closely. His results are incredibly good. In 60 international starts, he has already won 11 races and in almost 60 % of them he was among the prize-winners.“
Family
Mark Oude Griep bred Nibali from the KWPN elite performance mare Balou Lady (Balou du Rouet x Acord II). „She is now deceased, but I still have a few frozen embryos from her, as well as a yearling, a six-year-old and a seven-year-old from Colman, who starts at 1.30 m.“ In addition, she produced five international horses at 1.35–1.45 m level and is a half-sister to the 1.60 m Grand Prix horses Sterrehof’s Voltaire and Balou Z.
Mariano Martínez Bastida, who has a stable in Oliva that is rented out permanently, is immediately enthusiastic when he talks about Nibali, even though he almost didn’t buy him last year. „They told me he was eight years old, but it turned out he was seven. That made me wonder, because I thought he was too young,“ explains the global tour rider. „But something told me that he could be special. The feeling he gave me was so good, completely different from other horses.“
A horse for top-level sports
„At the beginning, Nibali was a bit shy, but he has so much quality. Over the course of the winter, his confidence has grown enormously. I now have the feeling that he is a horse for top-level sport. Do I consider selling him? No way, I’ve already received very interesting offers, but I don’t have a price for him,“ the Spaniard laughs.
More foals from Flanders
Since then, he has bought further foals from the Flanders Foal Auction. „I went to Sentower Park and didn’t plan to buy anything, but I saw everyone around me joining in, and in the end I bought four myself,“ he laughs.
Last year, his partner María López de la Vara bought the foal Eleonore van Overis Z (Ermitage Kalone) at the Flanders Foal Auction. „When I walked through the stables, I immediately fell in love with the photo that was hanging there. The foal itself hadn’t even arrived yet. It will be a long time before we know how good the foals will be, but we are very satisfied with these purchases,“ she says.