🔒 🔒 Making way for a new era – Watkins trades 24/7 responsibility for a quieter life at Willaroon

For 18 years, Sally Watkins has been beholden to the horses and her farm Willaroon in northeast Victoria.

Of course, she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

On Monday, a week into the 2026 breeding season, Watkins was up at 2am to transport mares to stallion farms to be served by their suitors in the early morning timeslot.

Those actions might not sound like Watkins is taking a step back from the seven-days-a-week commitment required to run a thoroughbred farm, but that’s what she did during the winter.

Watkins sold two-thirds of Willaroon’s landholding and the business to her stud manager Chris Andersen and his wife Kellie Webster, with the handover becoming official on July 1 in what’s been a succession plan years in the making.

She’s not leaving the Lurg farm, about 18km east of Benalla, but Andersen and Webster are in charge.

“The farm’s on three titles. I’ve kept one title and built a house and they’ve bought the other two titles and taken over the business,” Watkins told The Straight.

“So, it’s worked really well. It lets me step back a little bit as I didn’t want to keep working 24/7 like I was.

“I wanted to have a bit more time and they’re young and enthusiastic and very keen to take over the business. 

“And nobody knows it better than Chris who has been here for a long time (about 15 years). It’s been a really good takeover.”

Watkins bought Willaroon, described by the previous owner as a “money pit”, and curated a loyal band of supporters.

The accomplished horsewoman, in part, has Peter Moody to thank for helping her build Willaroon into a commercial operation.

“It was slow getting going, to start off with. Peter Moody was one of my earliest clients, and he was fantastic. He sent us a lot of horses when Brett Cavanough was just up the road at Albury,” she said.

“Brett was breaking in for Moods, and Brett just rang me one day and said, ‘can you take 22 horses tomorrow?’ And I went, ‘oh, yeah’. 

“He’d had them somewhere else, and apparently they weren’t happy, so, we just got landed with all these horses of Pete’s, and he’s been a fantastic client. 

“When he came back to training, he rang me and said, ‘have you got room for some horses?’ And I said, ‘I’ve always got room for yours’.”

Moody remains a loyal client to this day while fellow trainer Grahame Begg and bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills also have horses on agistment at Willaroon.

The business may have been handed over, but Watkins retains an interest in numerous broodmares and racehorses, including the recently retired She’s Bulletproof, a dual Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed sprinter who was trained by Charlotte Littlefield.

Defying modern-day convention, the She’s Bulletproof syndicate is retaining the six-year-old mare to breed with rather than cash in immediately on her immense residual value.

A daughter of Shooting To Win, She’s Bulletproof is booked to Darley’s first-season powerhouse Tentyris.

“I’ve still got my horses (at Willaroon) and I can still help Chris and Kellie run it without having to be responsible for everything,” Watkins said. 

“I’m loving the fact that my phone’s not going a hundred times a day. It’s been really good.

“I’ve said to everyone, it’s just business as usual. They can ring me or ring Chris, it doesn’t matter. But I don’t have to do all the organisational side of it, which is really nice.”

Watkins has built a house on a 165-acre parcel of Willaroon, with Andersen and Webster acquiring the other two titles amounting to about 335 acres.

“Where I’ve built my house out the back, I look through a valley to Mount Buffalo and it’s just the most beautiful, quiet spot at this time of year when it’s all green. It’s just gorgeous,” she said.

“It’s a lovely area, so I didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t want to keep working as hard as I was, so it’s just been a win-win (for all parties).”