Three Stal Hendrix references achieved top results at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary last weekend. Martin Fuchs’s Leone Jei did everyone proud, including the Dutch trading stable of the Hendrix family, by winning the Rolex Grand Prix. The two other horses that were successful in Calgary, 1.50m class winner Gamble of Conor Swail and Nayel Nassar’s Coronado, were sold in the Dutch Sport Horse Sales, one of the auctions that Stal Hendrix organizes.

With his outstanding victory in the Rolex Grand Prix in Calgary, the Baltic VDL son Leone Jei has once again proved to be among the very best showjumping horses in the world. With Martin Fuchs in the saddle the grey gelding continues his streak of impressive results, becoming one of the most successful references Stal Hendrix has to this date.

In 2021, when Leone Jei, was only nine years old, earned team gold and individual silver at the European Championships in Riesenbeck, marking one of the absolute highlights of his career. In the same year, he also won the Rolex Grand Prix in Geneva. Martin and Leone Jei have since become invaluable members of the Swiss team and recently participated in the European Championships in Milan. For three consecutive years, they’ve been part of the winning team in the Nations Cup competition in Sankt-Gallen, and they have also claimed the victory in the Rolex Grand Prix of Dinard. This past weekend, Martin Fuchs’s long-awaited dream came true thanks to two magnificent rounds by Leone Jei: they won the Rolex Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary.

Leone Jei (by Baltic VDL) was originally named Hay El Desta Ali and bred by Dutchman Gijs van Mersbergen. At the age of six he caught Paul Hendrix’s eye at a national competition in Geldrop, where he was ridden by Koen Leemans. In September 2018, the talented grey was acquired by Stal Hendrix, and a few months later he changed ownership and was renamed Leone Jei. Following Emile Hendrix’s recommendation, Swiss owner Adolfo Juri purchased the rising star for Martin Fuchs. “From the beginning, I knew Leone Jei was a very special horse. Such a horse deserves a top rider, and we knew Adolfo was looking for a new top mount for Martin Fuchs. They had attended our Dutch Sport Horse Sales, and a few weeks later, we were able to approach them and tell them about Leone Jei. You hope to find a horse like this every year, but it rarely happens. Leone Jei has so much scope, canter, personality, and attitude: it was definitely a future championship horse. It is amazing that everything turned out like this”, says Paul Hendrix. “Everyone at Stal Hendrix congratulates Martin Fuchs, Adolfo Juri, and all others involved on this fantastic success.”

On the 26th of September the annual Dutch Sport Horse Sales takes place. Together with Yves Houtackers, the Hendrix family has selected a brilliant mix of five-, six- and seven-year-olds for this auction. With many references from the past proving that this auction offers the very best. For example, on the final day of the CSIO5* Spruce Meadows Masters, Conor Swail secured the victory in the 1.50m Enbridge Cup with Gamble, a Dutch Sport Horse Sales purchase in 2015. Conor Swail has the Vingino-offspring in excellent form, marking their sixth (!) win in Calgary this year. In June, they won three 1.45m classes, and in July, they claimed the top prize twice at this level. 

On top of that, another Dutch Sport Horse Sales ambassador performed well in the Rolex Grand Prix. The Cassini I offspring Coronado, auctioned in 2013, once again showed his comfort on the impressive grass arena in Calgary. Under the saddle of Nayel Nassar, this grey gelding was already victorious in the prestigious five-star ATCO Queen Elizabeth II Cup in July of this year, and this Sunday he finished in sixth place in the CPKC International Grand Prix presented by Rolex. Even before these achievements Coronado was honoured with the title Dutch Sport Horse Sales’s Horse of the Year in 2019, after he’d been very successful under Mexican rider Francisco Pasquel. 

The Dutch Sport Horse Sales collection is once again packed with talent, that will be presented on Monday 25 September.  On Tuesday 26 September the auction will take place at the Peelbergen Equestrian Centre in the Netherlands and can also be watched via livestream on ClipMyHorse.

View the collection on: www.dutchsporthorsesales.com