THE inaugural Chinese edition of the Aloga horse auction hosted last week was a bold step into the Asian market by brothers Bertram and Harry Allen.

The event marked a historic moment as it was the first live horse auction ever held on mainland China, with five show jumping horses sold and the sale topper, Locomotion (Quickly De Kreisker) netting €169,000.

According to Bertram Allen, the move into the China market was a strategic one.

“We do quite a bit of business with China and train a chinese rider, Qinyu Pang, and he helped a lot with contacts. It was totally new for the Chinese to have a live horse auction. This milestone alone was a significant achievement for us,” Allen said.

“We presented a collection of five show jumping horses, consisting of two seven-year-olds and three eight-year-olds, all with proven competition records. All of the lots sold well, and we tailored the selection to the market - they prefer an older, more competitive horse whereas the Europe market is happy to go for a younger animal.

“We kept it small and controlled but hope to expand in the future. It was a great evening and was very well done, we do the Belgian one on a high level and we wanted the China one to be the same standard which we certainly achieved.”

The event attracted around 170 attendees, featuring the renowned MC Brendan McArdle who travelled to Shanghai specifically for this occasion. It was held in the incredible venue in the centre of Shanghai called The Shanghai Juss International Equestrian Centre.

Among the five lots sold was the Irish-bred Arctic Monkey IIG (Luidam x Quick Star) bred by Investing in Genetics Ltd. The eight-year-old was owned and produced by the team at Duffy Sport Horses and Alan Robertson until earlier this year.

“Overall, we were thrilled with the auction’s success and the positive feedback we received from our Chinese clients. We are excited about the future and look forward to hosting more auctions in China, working together to foster the growth of show jumping in the country,” concluded Allen.