We are now deep into yearling sales territory but, just for a moment's respite, here's something completely different. Well, maybe not completely, but certainly a little different, and thinking differently has become stock in trade for David Futter of Yorton Farm.Back in 2019, the first Yorton Sale was launched in association with Goffs on location at the beautiful Victorian model farm near Welshpool. Unless you live in Wales or its borders, Yorton isn't actually that central a destination for most potential buyers, but such is the drive of Futter and his team, that the bespoke sale of young National Hunt stock has been well attended from the start, including by French trainers. He built it; they came.Yorton's own field of dreams project started as a response to a dwindling pool of British-bred jumping stock in a sphere dominated by France and Ireland. Futter has long adopted a collaborative approach between the three nations, and has worked closely with the Cashman family's Glenview Stud and Pascal Noue of Haras de la Hetraie in a de facto stallion-sharing scheme. Over the years, Yorton has stood the stallions Malinas, Great Pretender and Blue Bresil, who have also spent time at one or other of the aforementioned farms. His close contact with breeders in France has meant plenty of farm-to-farm shopping trips and foal shows which in turn have led to new incentives being trialed in Britain This included the popular TBA National Hunt Foal Show, complete with a lively eve-of-show party, which ran from 2013 to 2019.“Anything that gives us the opportunity to get together socially, enjoy ourselves, and do a little bit of business between each other is a good thing,” says Futter. “I'd always wanted to do some kind of auction on site. Fortunately I bumped into Richard Venn through a deal on a stallion, and through him I thought I'd try my hand in France.”Buying stock in that country and observing a more proactive approach by the French to getting their youngsters into training spurred on Futter in his quest to establish a unique sale in Britain.He continues, “The French breeders and trainers have been so supportive to Yorton since the beginning, and we appreciate anyone who's ever come to Yorton to support us, but the French particularly. From the first sale we had winners in the French system before the next sale took place, and I think that probably was a catalyst. “To get them to come to buy British, or sometimes buying French horses that we've gone over and bought is great. But when the French buy our own Yorton-breds, that gives us the biggest kick. You see the horses going over there, winning, and then getting sold back into the system over here, which is a peculiar thing. But it was that bit of trading that really got it going. And the results are getting consistent now, so obviously whatever we're doing as a team, it's working. When you think we've only had about 150 runners through that ring, and over 50 per cent of them have won.”In addition to a 53 per cent winners-to-runners strike-rate, graduates from the sale include 13 black-type horses sold for an average price of £25,500, nine of which were either bred at Yorton or are by stallions based at the farm. These include Grade 1 Punchestown bumper winner Redemption Day and Grade 2-winning hurdler Inthepocket. Both are by Blue Bresil and were bred by Futter in partnerships with Will Kinsey and Tessa Greatrex respectively. David Futter, right, with son Lester | Sophie Webber The Yorton Sale stands alone in offering solely National Hunt two-year-olds, which is a departure from the traditional format of offering unbroken stores initially as four-year-olds and now more generally as three-year-olds. Focusing on jumping stock at a younger age is an attempt to ape the French system, which has over the last several decades provided an increasing number of the top-flight jumpers in training in Britain and Ireland, usually acquired through private in-training transactions.“It's not a case of there being better trainers in France or Ireland, or better horses or stallions. The one thing the French do is they just start them earlier. Just doing something a bit sooner with them – not necessarily racing them earlier, your horse still might not race until it's four – but the fact that they've done something as yearlings and two-year-olds, I think benefits them,” Futter says. His initial approach to Goffs to collaborate on the idea of a sale on home soil was made through Stuart Mactaggart.“I think he could see I was quite passionate about our vision for the sale. They had a meeting that week, and then I met up with Henry [Beeby]. George Stanners has helped us tremendously with it, and Goffs have been simple to work with, so easy, when we have wanted to try things. I couldn't say more good things about Henry. We backed each other, we worked together. No one's ever too small for him to stop and talk to, and that's a great asset to have, isn't it?”He continues, “We have to turn the farm into a sales complex, so it's a lot of work. It's not a normal sale and for the first two or three years I could see we were selling a lot of stock to pinhookers but we had to wear that to get where we wanted to get to.“We still want pinhookers to come of course, but if we were only ever selling to pinhookers, it defeats the object of what we're doing. Because what we want to do as breeders is to get our stock into training, direct from the farm.” Futter, left, with a group of French visitors at Yorton | Emma Berry That means attracting owners and trainers. At last year's sale, which had a 100 per cent clearance rate for the 33 two-year-olds offered, horses were sold to Donald McCain, Nigel and Willie Twiston-Davies, Harry Derham, Alan King, Jackie Stephen and Stuart Crawford among the trainers. Mags O'Toole and Peter Molony were also among the buyers, while those based in France included Hugo Merienne, Noel George, Nathan Vergne and Nicolas Bertran de Balanda.“It really is such a small boutique industry. In National Hunt, we've only got three countries predominantly. At least with the Flat, you've got countries all over the world,” Futter says. “In Britain we've just got to look after what we do and keep looking forward at ways we can improve. UK bloodstock gets a bit of a drumming but it's sometimes forgotten that in Britain, bloodstock is taxed as a leisure industry, which doesn't happen in Ireland, and it doesn't happen in France. We've been handicapped in this country. So anyone who's keeping their head above water, surviving, whether it's racing or bloodstock, is doing really well at the minute.“We've all got to be competitive, we've all got to drive our businesses on and keep them solid. But as well as being competitive, we can also work together, and if the three countries don't work together, we've got nothing, really.”In continuing to drive Yorton on, Futter unveiled an exciting new dual-purpose stallion for the farm for the 2026 season in Frankel's highly-rated son Cracksman. One of the great dual-purpose success stories for British breeding in recent years has been Golden Horn, who was bought from Darley by Jayne McGivern to stand at Simon Sweeting's Overbury Stud, where he has covered three-figure books of mares for the last four seasons. Like Golden Horn, Cracksman was bred by Anthony Oppenheimer of Hascombe & Valiant Studs and started his career at Dalham Hall Stud, producing the unbeaten Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Ace Impact in his first crop. “Cracksman has a great temperament, great agility, he's got everything going for him,” Futter says. “We bought Sulamani from Darley, then we bought Postponed, and then this one came along.“I remember I was in France with some mates at the Arc, sitting outside a little bar in the evening, and Richard Venn phoned me and said, 'I think we can get Cracksman bought.' I said, 'I'll be there,' and went straight home, jumped in the car, drove straight to Newmarket.“Sam [Bullard] and the whole Darley team have been so supportive to us. We shook hands on a deal, and Dai Walters financed it for us, so it was great. He loved it. He's been a great supporter of ours, as is the Potter family as well.” Dai Walters at the Yorton Sale | Sophie Webber Futter may well be more used to tuning in for the jumps meetings but this Saturday close attention will be paid to the G3 Solario Stakes at Sandown, in which Cracksman's son Breacher will attempt to build on the favourable impression he made when winning on debut at Salisbury. Futter adds, “After Ace Impact's year of racing, the next year Cracksman covered 175 mares of good quality and [the resultant offspring] have only just turned two. Then he got another year of 130 or 140 mares, and they're only yearlings, so over the next three or four years anything could happen.”Indeed, Cracksman has six two-year-old winners to his credit this season, which compares favourably so far to bigger names such as Night Of Thunder on eight or Lope De Vega with seven. One of those, Scommessa Sicura, has also been runner-up in the Listed Stonehenge Stakes. A Group 3 win for Breacher would certainly not go amiss, and on the same day, Cracksman's Grade 3-winning hurdler Ndaawi, trained by Gordon Elliott, will line up back on the Flat at the Curragh for a slightly different challenge. Declared for the Pat Smullen Cancer Trials Ireland Charity Race, which is supported by Ballylinch Stud, he will carry the former crack amateur-turned-MEP Nina Carberry. Don't bet against Ndaawi adding to his three wins on the Flat, for which he is rated 90.Alongside Cracksman on the Yorton roster is the aforementioned Postponed, along with a taste of Germany in Monsun's son Gentlewave and Ito, who is by Adlerflug and is a Group 1-winning full-brother to In Swoop. Stock by three of the four home stallions can be found in the seventh edition of the Yorton Sale. Also on offer among the 39 catalogued is a Blue Bresil gelding out of the Listed-winning hurdler Utopie Des Bordes (Antarctique), and a Nathaniel gelding whose dam is the G1 Annie Power Mares Champion Hurdle winner Stormy Ireland (Motivator).Flying the flag for Wales, the Goffs Yorton Sale takes place on Thursday, September 10 at 1pm. The post Field of Dreams: Yorton’s Unique Sale, From Farm to Training Yard appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.