My eyes are starting to go! I looked to make sure this was not already posted, but didn’t find anything?
Can you believe how much this horse was purchased for!? Whew!
I’m excited to see what a 15 Million dollar horse jumps like. And does it poop gold? I think that would be a requirement if I was ever financially able to spend that much money. Lol. Anyway… I wish them both luck.
Here’s the article:
http://www.passioneqblog.com/jan-tops-buys-palloubet-dhalong-15-million-2/
Wow, unbelievable! Lucky Edwina.
That’s exactly what I thought, BAC! Must be nice sitting on the likes of Itot and now this horse! 
Jan must have been concerned about Edwina not sitting at the top of the GCT leaderboard this year. 
She’s slumming it all the way down to 8th this year. Desperate times/measures, 'n all that…
FYI - I saw the article on the Chronicle’s FB feed this morning and two days ago it was on Noelle Floyd’s site
$15M looks a lot like this over fences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL6F8z_9C_3H9rkBfgIpM0Htw57bmXJVsY&v=oPBdeuYettk
Interesting strategy.
If I had 15 million, I think I’d spend it on 8-10 insanely nice Olympic prospects who were a bit younger. One horse seems like a huge gamble, especially since it’ll be getting a little older (13) by the next Olympics. Plus, it could get hurt tomorrow.
But then, I don’t have 15 million to spend so what do I know
I don’t know… I think this one is a bit of a freak. 2nd at Aachen and appearently jumped clean in all the Nation’s cups it did this year. Watching video of it I can see why it was singled out as something special. To win at WEG, Olympics, etc you do need to find a “Hickstead”, “Big Star” etc they really do need to be something special. Obviously spending 15million on a horse is never really an great investment but I do think this one will accomplish what they want it to do. He’s a really neat little horse
The horse has consistently jumped clean rounds over very big tracks with quite an unsophisticated ride. I think it will really be at the top with a rider as experienced and capable as Edwina.
What an amazing horse! He has the speed and handiness for the speed classes and yet the scope and bravery to do the Big grand prixs.
[INDENT]The horse has consistently jumped clean rounds over very big tracks with quite an unsophisticated ride. I think it will really be at the top with a rider as experienced and capable as Edwina. [/INDENT]
Very forgiving and a great brain! I cannot wait to see him and Edwina in action!
Just Wow. I have a half sister (a Baloubet mare). Sadly I cannot ride her even half as well so no big dreams for us.
…Not even if I had twice the money. For a GELDING? How big are the purses for these kind of events?
[QUOTE=danceronice;7181444]
…Not even if I had twice the money. For a GELDING? How big are the purses for these kind of events?[/QUOTE]
Not nearly enough to pay it back, unless he wins every event, every week, for the rest of his life. Though I think they’re more concerned with winning top events rather than the $$.
Some food for thought - this mare, Bella Donna, won the million dollar GP in Thermal (as well as many other huge accomplishments), is the same age, and last week they were seriously considering an offer of 5 million euros (anyone know if they accepted it or not?). Palloubet is obviously an unreal freak of a horse, but I don’t know, I think I’d rather have 3 Bella Donnas.
[QUOTE=danceronice;7181444]
…Not even if I had twice the money. For a GELDING? How big are the purses for these kind of events?[/QUOTE]
With cloning going on it MIGHT be a way they could get the money back.
Christa
Who would NEVER even contemplate spending that kind of money on a horse.
[QUOTE=Roxy SM;7181226]
The horse has consistently jumped clean rounds over very big tracks with quite an unsophisticated ride. [/QUOTE]
A 22 year old that took a 6 year old and turned it into a $15,000,000 horse can’t be described as “quite an unsophisticated ride” in my opinion. YMMV.
Whoops, never mind! I misunderstood.
[QUOTE=iEquitate;7181482]
Not nearly enough to pay it back, unless he wins every event, every week, for the rest of his life. Though I think they’re more concerned with winning top events rather than the $$.
Some food for thought - this mare, Bella Donna, won the million dollar GP in Thermal (as well as many other huge accomplishments), is the same age, and last week they were seriously considering an offer of 5 million euros (anyone know if they accepted it or not?). Palloubet is obviously an unreal freak of a horse, but I don’t know, I think I’d rather have 3 Bella Donnas.[/QUOTE]
I thought the price on Bella Donna was quite a bit higher. Also if Meredith owned Bella Donna we wouldn’t have even heard about it because she wouldn’t even have considered it. If Bella Donna ultimately sells you can bet it would be in a similar range.
I thought the price of this gelding was 
nuts beyond what I would ever deal with in Haiti. Then I saw what Digicel wants to charge me to replace my dying Curve with something that has enough memory to quit seizing up :O!! This thread is closer related than I would have thought…
Not to sell Janika short, as she is an awesome rider, but she does not yet have years of experience under her belt. She may be the next greatest rider ever, but today it is reasonable to expect her to make more errors on course than oh, let’s say Nick Skelton, right? But when she does that horse jumps just a bit harder and higher and compensates with his freakish talent and good sensibility and a sense of humor, all at 1.6m.
Clearly he was worth some serious money. $15M? Hey, they are all worth what you are willing to pay and this one had a bidding war going on for a while, it seems. Jan just didn’t feel like he had 15M burning a hole in in his pocket last week, some substantial offers appear to have been rejected before this.
Here is the video from Aachen with his old rider, where they were second in the big class. Nice horse! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPBdeuYettk&feature=share&list=PL6F8z_9C_3H9rkBfgIpM0Htw57bmXJVsY
[QUOTE=SlamDunk;7181637]
I thought the price on Bella Donna was quite a bit higher. Also if Meredith owned Bella Donna we wouldn’t have even heard about it because she wouldn’t even have considered it. If Bella Donna ultimately sells you can bet it would be in a similar range.[/QUOTE]
While Bella Donna is also a fabulous mare, I have to agree that Palloubet looks MUCH easier to ride. He looks like he has a pretty good sense of humour with a young GP rider, whereas Bella Donna looks like a REALLY tough ride even for a phenomenal rider like MMB.
[QUOTE=DMK;7181791]
Not to sell Janika short, as she is an awesome rider, but she does not yet have years of experience under her belt. She may be the next greatest rider ever, but today it is reasonable to expect her to make more errors on course than oh, let’s say Nick Skelton, right? But when she does that horse jumps just a bit harder and higher and compensates with his freakish talent and good sensibility and a sense of humor, all at 1.6m. s.[/QUOTE]
Thats what I found so impressive about him, he just ignored any mistakes on her part and jumped higher. Freakish talent describes him perfectly, I hope we get to watch him compete for many years.
[QUOTE=HalteranAlter;7181554]
A 22 year old that took a 6 year old and turned it into a $15,000,000 horse can’t be described as “quite an unsophisticated ride” in my opinion. YMMV.[/QUOTE]
Have you watched videos of the pair? The horse receives a ride I’d expect to see in the 1.20 jr/ams. No outright misses, but a lot of long and short and last minute decisions where the rider doesn’t help out much. All in all the horse looks un-supported, and it looks like the rider does not understand concepts that are generally learned before a rider reaches 1.60. Even the jumps where the distances are good in terms of technical measurement away from the jump, the horse has to jump past his front end because the rider does not provide a little support up front to slightly change his trajectory. Since he is so careful he probably doesn’t need much / doesn’t need to be held off the jump or anything, but I think you will find Edwina supports him a bit more and is more specific to the jumps rather than galloping on down there without the proper set up for the particular segment of the course.
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