Jacques Verkerk in selection committee Foal Auction Prinsjesdag

After being a member of the dressage selection committee of Foal Auction Prinsjesdag for more than ten years, Bert Poppelaars has resigned from his duties. He will be replaced next season by Jacques Verkerk, who has a lot of experience in assessing and selecting foals.

Jacques Verkerk will therefore be responsible for the selection of dressage foals together with Lauw van Vliet, while Fred van Straaten and Willem van Hoof will again focus on the selection of jumping foals for Foal Auction Prinsjesdag next season. Partly because of his age and the busy work that the role of selector entails, Bert Poppelaars has decided to stop after years of being associated with one of the leading foal auctions in Europe. The board is very grateful to Bert for the years of dedication, time and energy he has invested in Foal Auction Prinsjesdag. Last year again an average price for dressage foals of over 10,000 euros was achieved.

good expectations
“The board of Foal Auction Prinsjesdag has approached me to get started as a selector and that is a position that suits me well. I follow international sport and breeding closely and have selected foals for over 15 years. Foal Auction Prinsjesdag has a strong reputation, especially when it comes to jumping foals. I think it's a great challenge to ensure, together with Lauw, that we also continue to belong to the top with the dressage foals”, responds Jacques Verkerk. “You see at all auctions that the difference between the dressage and show jumping auctions is increasing. That starts with a different selection, but the experience is also very different at the auction itself. With the jumping foals it is largely about the expectations on paper, with the dressage foals it is much more 'what you see is what you get'. The presentation of the foals is decisive, certainly on the auction day itself. It is therefore about the very best dressage foals, because the bar is set high at Foal Auction Prinsjesdag. That makes it very interesting for me.”