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IS THE DUTCH GRAVY TRAIN ABOUT TO END???.......A Special Report by Louise Parkes for PhelpsSports.com

Written by: Louise Parkes
Client: PhelpsSports.com http://phelpssports.com/
Release Date: 2006-06-26

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Louise Parkes for PhelpsSports.com

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PHOTO CREDIT: Dutch bred Royal Kaliber and U.S. rider Chris Kappler. This Olympic Gold and Silver winner was imported from Henk Nooren of The Netherlands. Photo by Diana DeRosa.

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IS THE DUTCH GRAVY TRAIN ABOUT TO END???.......A Special Report by Louise Parkes for PhelpsSports.com

Dublin, Ireland – June 26, 2006 - Dutch journalist and photographer, Jacob Melissen, has come up with a cunning plan for his country's show jumping team - and it just might work. He is about to become manager of Springpaarden Fonds Nederland which loosely translates as Showjumping Fund Netherlands - and the plan is to source sufficient money to ensure that the top show jumping horses produced in Holland will not be sold outside the country but will, instead, remain at home and at the disposal of Holland's best riders.

The idea evolved during his 1,300 kilometre drive back to his home in Holland after the opening Samsung Super League round at La Baule in France last year. Jacob was not in a good mood at the time because, to his absolute dismay, the American team – all mounted on Dutch horses - had finished first while Jacob's fellow-countryman were a miserable last. "How is this possible? I said to myself" Jacob explains, "all of these horses were produced in The Netherlands but were sold and then come back to Europe to beat us. We cannot let this continue".

So when he got back to his base in Pesse, he got on the telephone and began to put his plan into action, contacting six of the top horse-dealers in Holland and making a proposal to them. "I asked them a question - if there was a fund or an institute in The Netherlands which could pay the market price for a horse in order to keep that horse for a Dutch rider to compete would they agree to sell it to the fund? It would have to be the BEST horse they had in the whole year - one with real potential" Jacob explains. The men he approached were all big names, people with long experience as competitors as well as dealers, and all of them said "Yes". So Willy van der Ham, Johan Heins, Emile Hendrix, Hans Horn, Henk Nooren and Egbert Schep have come onboard.

"The horses will mostly be five years old or sometimes six, and the idea is that if the horse is worth, say, €200,000 then the fund will pay 75% of that price - the dealer owns the other quarter-share. Then if we decide to sell, the dealer will receive one quarter of the sale price so if the horse is sold for €2 million then he will receive €500,000 - its a good arrangement for everyone" Jacob points out.

A financial partner was the next thing required, so, through a friend, Jacob contacted the Chairman of the Board of Van Lanschot Bank which manages a similar fund for developing up-and-coming young golf players and Floris Beckers from Van Lanschot, whose daughter competes in showjumping, has given the fund arrangement his seal of approval. "We don't have permission to set up the fund just yet" Jacob said when his idea was announced at Rotterdam last Thursday, "we have to go through all the official channels and have the approval of the Dutch financial authorities but we are hoping that will all be completed by the beginning of July and we are looking for between €3.5 million and €5 million in order to get started." The bank's director, Erik de Boer, who is involved in the running of CHIO Rotterdam, will be taking an active interest and Jacob says that he has met with nothing but enthusiasm so far.

"The secret here is that all of the guys I have asked to select horses have enjoyed wonderful sporting careers, they are really successful dealers and live on lovely farms and drive smart Audi A8's - they have done a lot in their lives and have done well out of the sport, now they are prepared to put something back in. They won't lose money, they will get paid the market price for any horses that are bought and they will be involved in choosing which rider the horse goes to and how the horse is managed while still owning 25% - everybody wins" Jacob points out.

He says the Dutch Equestrian Federation is "positive" about the project, but cannot get involved in the initiative because it would not be appropriate for them to do so. "The riders and everyone involved know me for more than 30 years and the plan is only to benefit the sport. When the fund is started I get paid €2,500 a month to manage it, but half of that will go on taxes!" he says. No holiday in the Bahamas for Jacob on the strength of it then - but that was never what it was all about anyway.....

If things go according to plan then the first horses should be purchased before the end of the year - "but it is a long-term thing and it will take some time to find out just how good the horses are" Jacob says. "Our goals are high, we want to find horses that will be competitive at World Cup, World Championship, Super League and Olympic level - that is our aim, and any horses that will not make the grade will be sold on. If we can find one or two really high level horses each year that will be great" he points out. The horses will compete with the letters SFN (Sportpaarden Fonds Nederland) after their names and the project will be closed down in 2017, with all horses owned by the fund to be dispersed by sale at that stage but, in the meantime, if horses owned by the SFN are being sought-after in the lead-up to Olympic Games or championships they will not be let go. "It doesn't matter what kind of money is offered, if the horse is going well then it will be jumping for Holland and not for any other country" Jacob insists.

The outspoken Dutchman bemoans the sale of so many top quality animals to the U.S. market in particular where, as he sees it, they are often wasted on riders who compete them in low-level competition - "it's terrible - it reminds me of the Japanese bankers who bought a beautiful Dutch painting for USD80million and stored it in a safe where nobody could see it - it's all wrong. The best horses should get a chance to show just how good they can be - they should be ridden by the best riders" he says. There will be a lot of people, both within Holland and elsewhere, who will be intrigued to see if Jacob's plan works out as he hopes. If it does, then Dutch showjumping has a great deal to gain.....

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PHOTO CREDIT: Dutch bred Royal Kaliber and U.S. rider Chris Kappler. This Olympic Gold and Silver winner was imported from Henk Nooren of The Netherlands. Photo by Diana DeRosa.