Top Totilas Foal Leads Sweep For Mattia

‘Testing geldings means breeders can see the talents and strengths that breeding lines are producing

 

- Carole Mortimer

BY any standards this annual show proved a fruitful one for Darren Mattia and his Herefordshire-based Court Farm Stud. Tinta Amarela, bred by Darren and co-owner Cara Sweeney, swept through her class of 13 premium foals, won the foal championship and stood supreme at the end of the two-day show.

The filly, a daughter of Totilas out of a Dannebrog mare, caught the eye of the judges Katy HolderVale, Judith Davis and Helmut Wilking from the Hanoverian Verband. He commented on her “fabulous, effortless trot” as well as saying she was the “best Totilas foal” he had seen.

“Tinta most definitely has a future in dressage,” said Darren. “She is for sale and if she’s not sold by the end of the year we will produce her and sell her later on .”

Darren also took the colt foal championship with his own Sangiovese (Sir Donnerhall x Londonderry), described as “very uphill and a powerful mover”, and bred the mare test and four-year-old mare class winner Desire (Dimaggio x Fidertanz), a former top scorer as a foal and yearling in the Futurity, now owned by Sara Bunch.

Reserve supreme went to Lynne Crowden’s 15-year-old state premium proven broodmare mare Louisiana (Longchamp x Davignon) — the dam of the stallion Wavavoom — who took the overall mare championship. Her bloodlines came to the fore in the young stock champion Walking On Sunshine.