Silver anniversary for Foal Auction Prinsjesdag

Piet Meinen: “The auction in Vechta, Germany, was my great example. I was an auctioneer myself for ten years and I loved doing this. The ambiance is very important. You have to draw attention to the ring, otherwise people will talk to each other instead of bidding.”

Elite Auction

Gerrit Deen, chairman from 1993 to 1998, wanted to give breeders from North Holland and the Netherlands a stage with this auction. Prinsjesdag had to become an elite auction. “I never doubted that it would succeed, we went for it. There was no real strategy and money had to be added in the first few years, but we didn't want to give up until we were the best in the Netherlands!” Herman Verhagen took over from Gerrit Deen and was chairman until 2014. Under his leadership, the motto 'The power of performance' started to play the leading role from 2002. “Beautiful foals with good bloodlines no longer made it through the selection. We wanted demonstrable sports performance in the mare line. The Prinsjesdag auction has started to excel in offering foals from the best stocks, both nationally and internationally.”

Ingredients for success

The auction continued to innovate and in 2015 the first embryo was auctioned online. Arjan van der Waaij is the current foreman of the auction. “We cannot guarantee a top sport horse, but all the ingredients for success are there. Over the years, many of the foals auctioned by us have performed at the highest level. We saw them at the Olympic Games, European Championships and in the Global Champions Tour. We will continue to innovate for the future, we follow the market and we see no limits.”