By Jo de Roo

From July 26 to 29, the Zangersheide Festival took place. Despite the extremely hot temperatures in Belgium, more than 450 foals participated in the foal championship. They were divided in six groups and, afterwards, we Luc Tilleman, one of the members of the jury who said, “In general, the quality of Z-Festival foals is improving each year. We noticed that the presented foals belong to outstanding dam lines...”
“We also noticed that some stallions ‘handed out’ their business card during this Z-Festival, such as Asca Z, Comilfo Plus Z and Toulon. Those stallions were represented in several finals and, generally speaking, we saw a very good offspring from them.”
Can the quality still improve? “Yes, if the breeders keep on working in the way they are doing – by using their very best dams that belong to strong performance families and by crossing them with good stallions. For example, Halifax is a young stallion, he is eleven-years-old. It’s important that young stallions get chances and that they can cover the best dams. Breeders should always try to improve. We, as stallion keepers with good stallions, need breeders with good dams. And vice-versa, the breeders with good dams cannot realize their breeding aim if we don’t have good stallions. We have to help each other, in order to become stronger and better.”

Tilleman’s comments about the winners of the six groups were important to note: Capraline Champion Z (Catoki - Apraline x Landor S), bred by T. De Boer, won the A group of the fillies: “A very beautiful, correctly built filly with many blood. She has an interesting pedigree. She has a nice conformation and demonstrated elegant movements.”

Heartbreaker’s signature

Hocus Pocus S Z claimed victory in the A group for colts. He was bred by Nico Schulpen who crossed the Comme Il Faut daughter, Comme Ci Comme Ca S Z, with Halifax van het Kluizebos. According to Tilleman: “Hocus Pocus is a beautiful bay son by Halifax with very good movements. A sport type with much blood. He has a rectangular conformation and is a very promising colt. In Hocus Pocus we can recognize the signature of Heartbreaker. He is very beautiful and bred in a interesting way with Halifax and Comme Il Faut, two stallions that are performing at the highest level.”..

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