David Bailey walked his colt to the ring, handed it over and ran for the cab waiting to take him to the Regina airport.
A few minutes later he learned by cellphone that his black Percheron stallion, Paramount Knight Train, sold to a Wisconsin buyer for $12,750, topping the North American Equine Ranching Information Council’s draft horse classic.
That also helped the sale, in its seventh year at Canadian Western Agribition, earn its highest gross ever at $119,550.
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Thirty-one weanlings sold in the sale and are eligible to return as two-year-olds in the 2009 futurity.
Bailey was surprised at the amount Harold Blackburn paid for the horse, but he knew there was a lot of interest. Potential buyers had been calling for weeks.
“You could have 100 black colts standing in a field and you would focus on him,” he said. “He’s handsome. It’s one of those lucky things that happens when genes fit together.”
Brian Coleman of Didsbury, Alta., trained the colt and led him in the ring. He said many of the colts entered are gelding prospects but buyers recognized that Knight Train is a breeding horse.
He comes from a strong mare line, Coleman said, adding that one of his mother’s daughters sold at the 2004 World Percheron Congress for $25,000.
Bailey said the sale to the United States is good recognition of the breeding programs in Western Canada.
Last year Bailey’s two-year-old filly took the supreme championship in the Agribition Percheron show. In the last 10 years he has won three supreme titles with three different horses.
“I really like Agribition,” he said with a laugh.
Norm Luba, the equine council’s executive director, said the horse industry recognizes that Agribition is a tremendous showplace.
“There’s a great demand for good breeding stock,” he said. “These horses will make their way into some of the most prominent hitches in North America.”
Luba said new buyers participated in the classic sale this year and buyers don’t have to be members of the equine council.
Official results of this year’s futurity competition weren’t available before Western Producer deadlines.
The futurity is the richest for two year olds in North America.
In 2009, it will pay out more than $50,000 to the top 10 horses.
This year, the payout was $32,720.
