Two foals to go to Canadian interests; Gazelle’s owners: ‘We have a grandchild!’

The very first Flanders Embryo Auction in Ocala proceeded in a way that any scriptwriter could only dream of. The collection included a grandchild of the world’s best earning showjumping horse at the moment, Gazelle, ridden by Kent Farrington, and it was to be expected that Gazelle’s owners, Farrington and Robin Parsky, would be interested. And on Friday at Live Oak International, when lot 18 came up, they struck and for $30,000 bought the still-unborn foal.

The good reputation of Flanders Foal & Embryo Auction is rapidly growing world-wide. After the regular foal auctions in Bonheiden and Opglabbeek, Luk Van Puymbroeck and Gerald Lenaerts further developed their format. Their motto: ‘Do not wait for the client to come to you, you should go to the client’ last year resulted in the first embryo auction in the United Emirates and a thumping good foal auction in Bolesworth, where one record after the other was broken.

“Are the Americans ready yet for buying embryos, was a question we were often asked. Well, you never know, but the Arabs were ready! We have had two successful embryo auctions there already,” Gerald Lenaerts tells us. “They are the risks you have to take,” Luk van Puymbroeck explains. “It will all go easier once you have a good reputation. We are extremely pleased that we constantly attract new clients as buyers, people we would never get to come to our auctions in Belgium.”

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