Olympic mare Ornellaia is coming house, to the delight of her former accomplice John Whitaker.
The 20-year-old For Pleasure mare was prime lot on the first Flanders Foal Public sale of 2025, promoting for €136,000 (£116,000) to the British-based Outdated Lodge Stud. Her first filly, Coeur d’Or Z was additionally offered, for €66,000 to a German journalist and breeder.
“Flanders Foal Public sale answered many urgent questions with its first foal public sale of the yr,” a spokesperson for the sale mentioned. “What’s the worth of a 20-year-old Olympic mare who delivered her first foal? Do world political unrest and wars have an effect on public sale costs? And does curiosity in leaping foals with confirmed pedigrees stay excessive? The end result exceeded expectations, with a mean worth of €30,765.”
Ornellaia, who represented Britain on the 2016 Video games with John, and on the 2021 younger rider Europeans with Sienna Charles, the place the group gained bronze, was the primary lot of the night time, at Sentower Park in Belgium. Bidding was as much as €75,000 earlier than the public sale even began, however it was Outdated Lodge Stud, based by the late Prince Torki Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Kabeer of Saudi Arabia and now led by his son, Prince Sultan, that gained the night time.
“My daughter identified that Ornellaia was going to be auctioned, and that obtained the ball rolling,” mentioned John, who rides for Outdated Lodge Stud and was watching the sale on-line.
“That mare nonetheless means a lot to me. She has such an amazing mentality, all the time comfortable, ears all the time ahead. I actually like her. I’m happy she’s going to such a pleasant place, and that we’ll be capable to see her and her future foals.”
One other British Olympic medal-winner was in bidding motion on the sale; Peter Charles secured the primary offspring ever offered out of the grand prix mare Azur HH. The Cornet Obolensky colt, Côte d’Azur HH Z, will transfer to the Charleses’ Heathcroft Farm.
Flanders Foal Public sale has 4 extra gross sales this season, the subsequent of which is at Peelbergen on 28 June.
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Credit score: AFP through Getty Photographs
John Whitaker and Ornellaia on the Rio Olympics. Image by Peter Nixon
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Credit score: Future
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H&H information editor
Eleanor is an skilled journalist who spent over eight years working for native and nationwide newspapers earlier than becoming a member of H&H as information editor in March 2016. Obsessed with equine welfare and exposing the reality, Eleanor has reported on all elements of the business, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage guidelines to mules. Her sport of selection is showjumping, through which she competes her personal horses, and she or he additionally enjoys reporting at native leaping exhibits via to worldwide championships.
