Quality over quantity

Polly Bryan meets Waverley Stud’s Sara Longworth, and finds a shrewd breeder whose modest operation is punching above its weight

- Polly Bryan

QUALIFYING a horse for the World Breeding Championships is a huge achievement for any breeder, let alone someone who only breeds a handful of horses per year. So it is especially impressive that not one but two of the British horses who appeared on the selection list last autumn carried the Waverley Stud prefix: Waverley Fellini, selected for the five-year-old championship, and Waverley Dante, reserve in the seven-year-old category.

Of course, the championships themselves, scheduled for December 2020 in Verden, were cancelled due to the rapidly escalating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, but this should not detract from the achievements of Waverley Stud and its savvy owner Sara Longworth, for whom this recognition capped a “phenomenal” year.

It is the talented young Fürstenball x Sandro Hit son Fellini who has spearheaded the Warwickshire stud’s success over the past 12 months. He was crowned national novice champion under Greg Sims in August, before going on to win the national five-year-old championship as well as his Verden selection trial in October.

Across the Channel, French Olympian Jessica Michel-Botton partnered Waverley Don Amour to three-year-old glory at the French breeding championships, while the likes of Fairchild, De Caprio, So Cliquot and Night Music have been catching the eye on the British circuit.