We visit the Mid Wales stud farm where running horses achieve racing victories and find love and hard work

With racing traditionally known as the ‘Sport of Kings’, ownership of the beautiful participating beasts is still believed by many to be something of a closed world. Yet one flourishing business in Shropshire has made it its mission to prove that this is very much not the case.

Located in the village of Leighton, Welshpool, only around 30 minutes from Shrewsbury, Yorton Farm Stud stands as a proud bastion of racehorse breeding.

Run by David Futter, his wife Birte and David’s sons Riley and Lester, the stud stands as one of the most successful in Britain, having proudly sired its share of Grade 1 National Hunt winners.

The home to four strapping stallions, and around 50 brood mares, Yorton is a joyous operation oozing in enthusiasm and love for some of the most magnificent animals ever to grace the planet.

There remains an old perception that horse-racing – or at least, being ‘in’ the industry as either a breeder or owner – is something of an elitist affair. Yet David, Birte and Riley would be the first people to valiantly dispel that idea. As David relates, all it took for him to get involved was passion.

“We used to live in Yorton, which is on the Hadnall Sansaw estate – we moved there in 1999,” said David. “We had the opportunity to come here to Leighton when James and Jean Potter approached us. They’d just taken this on to renovate it and they thought it would make a good stud farm. We came over, we liked it – it’s a beautiful area. We moved over here in 2013. Being here gave us the scope to develop the business a lot more.”

These days Yorton is such a success that, as of the end of January, 48 per cent of the currently running horses sold at the stud’s annual sale have achieved racing victories. With this, it may surprise some readers to know that David’s own pedigree is not equestrian.

“I come from no background in horses,” he said. “My mum and dad had nothing to do with horses. 

“This lifestyle that our family have is open to anyone who wants to get involved in this world. We’re not some special family that have been generations of horsey people. We’re now quite a respected stud farm within the country, but for me it all started from going down, helping out and mucking out at other places. 

“I couldn’t wait to get home from school and get stuck in. I’d made up my mind I was going to work with horses, and it just developed from there onwards. What we want to do as a business is to make this world more open.”

In visiting Yorton, one of the first things that clearly resonates is that this is a business built on two critical cornerstones: love and hard work.

As head vet Birte relates, both the hard work and the love have just begun this year in earnest.

“We’re literally now just starting with the stud season,” she said. “At a lot of studs, foaling will start from January onwards and go through until June. Our first foals were due by the end of February. We prefer to time it like this because the weather earlier in the year can be miserable and cold and we want them to go out in the fields as soon as possible after they are born.

“The official start of the covering season is actually Valentine’s Day. We start covering then with our stallions. In the run-up, they knew that the season was coming so they were getting very excited! The thoroughbreds all have to be covered naturally, in comparison to the sport horses where in most cases you do artificial insemination. 

“We have about 50 brood mares ourselves – they belong to the farm. James and Jean Potter are our neighbours and our landlords and they have got around the same number of brood mares as we have.

“As the vet, I take charge of the reproduction work. We do the foaling ourselves, which is normally between 80 to 100 per year. The mares mainly foal during the night, so it’s quite intense!”

For the entire team at Yorton, at the moment it’s all hands on deck – not least for David’s son, Riley.

“I’ve been around horses from being a child and I love it,” he said. “I came back here in 2019 after doing an apprenticeship. I did a stint on a stud farm in Australia and worked with stallions out there.

“Typically at this time of year I’ll wake up and lunge one of the stallions – just a bit of fitness training to help them get ready for the covering season. It’s quite a lot of work for them to be covering the mares naturally. 

“At this time of year we’ll also have young horses which we start training slowly – putting rollers (which are very small saddles) across their backs, and getting them used to being lunged. 

“They’ve just recently started jumping over little barrels. That takes up the morning, and then we’ve actually got another farm, on the Rorrington Estate which belongs to Sam and Adrian Boyes, that we took on two years ago where all the young stock are kept and they’re all in big loose houses. So we go there, feed them, check them, and then we’ll come back and if there are any other jobs we’ll get them sorted.

“We’ve got a great stud manager Jill Beazley and a fantastic team of girls in the yard that do all the basic running, turning horses in, turning horses out and feeding them.”

“It’s a great team – we’re so lucky to have them,” added David.

As the year progresses, David, Riley, Birte and the team begin to turn their attention to one of Yorton’s calendar highlights.

“The summer is a great time as it’s when we’re getting ready for our sale in September,” said Riley. “The ground is dry, the mares and foals are living out, and the stables are full of between 30 and 40 two-year-olds. They’ll be getting prepped for our sale, and that time is great as that’s when you learn the character of the horses. It’s really the start of their career – the first time they’ve had a bit in their mouth.”

With regards to the September sale, the team are deservedly proud to have made this annual event a resounding success.

“The sale was something we’d always wanted to do,” said David. “I remember the very first time I went to a bloodstock sale, and the only person who said hello to me was the man on the gate – it was such a ‘closed shop’. We didn’t want ours to be like that.

“Before we started, no one in National Hunt had done a select sale of yearlings and two-year-olds, and they were all our own horses. It was a huge risk. Financially we’d gambled everything on this one day. I was pounding the floor upstairs, but two days later I was walking on air.”

With Yorton’s first sale having been a triumph, the event has taken place every year since, and is now a big part of how the team is helping to perpetuate inclusivity in racehorse ownership.

“We wanted to create an environment where anyone can come along, ask questions, and speak to the one family that own the horses, and look them in the eye,” said David. “Our sale partners, Goffs UK, have been integral to it.

“Together, we’ve produced a system where anyone can come and buy horses safely and with confidence.”

In opening horse racing up to the masses though, Yorton’s work does not end with that one day in September. 

“The sale is only one part of it,” said David “We are one of the largest National Hunt studs in the country, and for anyone who wants to get involved, we do certain packages. 

“Anyone can have the fun of buying into a mare and breeding their own racehorse, which is great, and a lot of people don’t even realise that opportunity is there.

“It could be anybody who comes in and says ‘I’ve got X amount of money, and I want to have a bit of fun’. We’ll put something together, select some horses for them, and manage the whole thing right through to the racecourse.”

With all eyes about to turn to Cheltenham, now could be the perfect time for any burgeoning racehorse owners to take the leap. With Yorton, you may even end up bagging yourself a champion.

“Going back to the stats, nearly every other horse that walks through our sale ring and races is winning on the track,” said David. “Out of the sale we have already produced Grade 1 winners – the highest level you can win at. Chances of owning a winner seriously increase if you come to Yorton.”

This year’s Goffs UK Yorton Sale will take place on September 4. For more information, visit yortonfarm.co.uk

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