Horse Racing: RIGHT PLACE RIGHT TIME; GRASS ROOTS Amy Bennett talks to David and Teresa Futter about the two new stallions who will be standing at their Yorton Farm Stud this season.
Byline: Amy BennettLIFE on any stud farm in winter is all about looking to the future, and David and Teresa Futter are eagerly anticipating the start of the stud season this month at their Yorton Farm Stud in Shropshire, where they will be standing stallions for the first time.
The couple foal around 80 mares a year for their clients and also walk mares into local studs, although many will remain at Yorton to be covered by the stud's two new resident stallions, Primo Valentino and Revoque.
The chance to stand the 1999 Middle Park Stakes winner Primo Valentino arose through the close contacts the Futters maintain with the Shropshire breeding community.
David explains: "I worked at Bearstone Stud a good few years ago and I've always kept in touch with the owner Terry Holdcroft, and we've done business with him, walking mares into Bearstone for the last year or two. Terry came over here in the summer and told us he had a new stallion coming to Bearstone but he didn't want to sell Primo Valentino, and so he offered us the opportunity to stand him.
"We were chuffed to bits to get a Group 1 winner as our first stallion, and as soon as we'd done the deal, he started having winners coming left, right and centre - we couldn't believe our luck."
The second stallion to join the roster at Yorton Farm also possesses a distinguished record as a juvenile. Unbeaten in four starts at two, Revoque landed his first Group 1 success in the Prix de la Salamandre at Longchamp before returning to the same track a month later to complete a Group 1 double in the Grand Criterium. While he did not strike at the highest level at three, he was a close second to Entrepreneur in the 2,000 Guineas and was also narrowly defeated in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes.
The 13-year-old son of Fairy King has proved his worth at stud, having sired the likes of Grade 3 winner Rebel Rebel, who emulated his sire by finishing second in the 2,000 Guineas, and the Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1,000 Guineas) heroine Golden Nepi.
Formerly at Liam Cashman's Rathbarry Stud, Revoque has found a niche as a dual-purpose sire, with the Listed hurdle winner Queen Astrid his biggest winner over jumps. The six-year-old mare was sold at Tattersalls Ireland's November National Hunt sale last year, tying the sale's record for a broodmare when bought for EUR230,000.
"We've been extremely lucky," David says. "It's all about being in the right place at the right time. With Revoque, Willie Jenks, who has had mares foaling here for the last couple of years, rang us one day and said, 'How would you like to stand a really top-class National Hunt stallion?' He said he'd just been on the phone to Catherine Cashman [wife of Liam] and they wanted somewhere fresh to stand Revoque, with a young couple in England.
"He said to leave it with him, and within half an hour Liam Cashman rang us up. We'd met him once or twice before and we chatted for a bit that day, and then the next day he rang me back and said yes, and that was it, the deal was done. A week later we had the stallion here."
While Revoque's best performers so far have been on the Flat, he has covered some well-bred jumps mares in the last few seasons, including close relatives to Rhinestone Cowboy, Brave Inca and Newmill, so the Futters look forward to the stallion's future.
Situated in the picturesque village of Clive, Yorton Farm is the latest addition to the thriving stud farm community in Shropshire, with Shade Oak, Wood Farm and Bearstone studs all nearby. Teresa says: "Shropshire is fantastic for horses, and it's such a community here. All those three big studs are ten minutes or so from us."
The couple are heavily involved with the day-to-day running of the stud, although they are ably assisted by two full-time staff for whom they are full of praise. In addition, David has a thriving business as an equine dentist, a career he embarked on in 1993, which keeps him busy at yards and studs around Britain.
The oldest stables on the farm, set on 100 acres of Robin Thompson's Sansaw estate, date back to the 1880s. The Futters have already built several new stabling blocks - from just eight boxes four years ago, Yorton Farm already has stabling for nearly 70 horses - but it is still expanding. "Things really have grown so fast, and we'll probably grow out of this farm eventually," says Teresa.
The couple made the move to Yorton Farm four years ago, along with their two young sons, having rented stables nearby for several years.
David explains: "We were selling hunters at the time for Teresa's brother, and I was still working a few days over at Shade Oak and Bearstone, and foaling for Wood Farm Stud. Then Robin Thompson, who owns the Sansaw Estate, came over one day to buy a horse from us - we knew him from hunting - and he said he had a great place here at Yorton that we might want to use.
"We then didn't hear from him for a couple of months, until he rang up and asked if we would like to move here. We just couldn't believe our luck. Robin really has been the instigator in all of this as he gave us the opportunity to get going here."
AFTER the family made the move to the former sheep and dairy farm, accompanied by half a dozen broodmares of their own, luck again intervened in the form of a chance meeting.
"We used to work for Bill Bromley [owner of Wood Farm Stud] part time, but I hadn't worked for him for five or six years until we bumped into each other through a mutual friend," David recalls. "Bill was getting to the stage where he couldn't cope with doing all the foaling with the stallion work as well, and he asked if we would like to take on his foaling work. It was at the same time as we had taken on the farm, only about a week after moving here, so it couldn't have worked out better really." While Teresa, the daughter of an Irish horse dealer, is from a family heavily involved with horses, her husband's route into racing was somewhat less conventional.
"I happened to be in the scouts, and we were doing bob-a-job," David explains with a laugh. "My friend said, 'Come on, there's a stable in the next village, let's go there and see if we can do bob-a-job'. We knocked on the door and the owner gave us some jobs to do, washing down a jeep and mucking some stables. He had some daughters and they were riding their ponies; we asked if we could have a go on the ponies and that was it!"
While his future wife was training as a veterinary nurse and schooling hunters, David was serving a thorough apprenticeship in a series of studs, including at Helshaw Grange, in the days of Henbit and Le Moss. The job provided a steep learning curve.
David explains: "At the time Helshaw probably had about 70 mares of its own as well as whatever mares were worked into the stallions, so we learned pretty quickly!"
The Futters are not ruling out standing more stallions in the future.
"We're primarily jumping people, but if the chance came to stand a good Flat stallion we would certainly do it," David says. "There are plenty of studs who stand both a good jumps stallion and a good Flat one.
"We've been well supported here by mare owners. You can have all the money in the world and the best stallion, but if people won't send you mares, it's no use to anyone. We've been very lucky with the contacts we had, and the support as well."
'We were chuffed to bits to get a Group 1 winner as our first stallion and, as soon as we'd done the deal, he started having winners left, right and centre. We couldn't believe our luck'
CAPTION(S):
Teresa and David Futter at Yorton with Revoque, second in the 2,000 Guineas and a dual Group 1 winner at two
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| Title Annotation: | Sports |
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| Publication: | The Racing Post (London, England) |
| Date: | Feb 2, 2007 |
| Words: | 1396 |
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