Avantea Legacy in Sport: Filippo Sertori & Onlyou di Villagana
“Avantea Legacy in Sport” continues, the series created by Avantea in collaboration with Horseshowjumping.tv to showcase the sporting achievements of horses produced through assisted reproductive technologies. At the heart of the second episode are Onlyou di Villagana and Filippo Sertori: a promising young stallion with an outstanding pedigree who, season after season, continues to confirm his qualities in the competition arena.
Genetics, breeding and sport. These are the three elements that converge in the second episode of Avantea Legacy in Sport, the project developed by Avantea in collaboration with Horseshowjumping.tv to follow and document the competitive careers of horses produced through assisted reproductive technologies.
The focus of this new episode is Onlyou di Villagana, a seven-year-old stallion bred by Anna Zorzan, owned by Andrea Messersi and currently ridden by Filippo Sertori.
Over the past few years, Onlyou has built an impressive record in young horse classes. Last season, he won the FISE six-year-old final before going on to compete at the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken. This year, he has continued to deliver strong performances in the seven-year-old divisions.
Yet Onlyou’s story began long before he ever entered a competition arena. It began with his pedigree and the decision to combine two bloodlines that have already demonstrated their value extensively at the highest levels of international sport.
Casall x Winona van Paemel: a pedigree bred for sport
Onlyou di Villagana is by Casall out of Winona van Paemel, a daughter of Darco. On the sire’s side, his pedigree therefore features one of the most influential names in modern showjumping breeding.
Casall, a Holsteiner born in 1999 by Caretino, competed successfully at 1.60m level before establishing himself as one of the world’s leading breeding stallions.
Figures published by Hippomundo provide an even clearer indication of Casall’s impact as a sire. In the ranking of stallions with the highest number of offspring competing internationally, Casall ASK ranks tenth, with 394 descendants active at international level. Of these, 33.6% have achieved placings and, over the period covered by the ranking, his progeny have earned more than €2.3 million in prize money.
Onlyou’s dam line is equally compelling.
His dam, Winona van Paemel, a daughter of Darco, competed up to 1.60m level with Steve Guerdat, the Swiss rider who won individual gold at the London Olympic Games, became European Champion in 2023 and claimed individual silver at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. She therefore brings to Onlyou’s pedigree not only an outstanding bloodline, but also proven sporting credentials acquired at the very highest level.
From his early results to his six-year-old season
Onlyou’s qualities began to emerge in his first young horse classes. Before being partnered with Filippo Sertori, the stallion was ridden by Diego Pagano, with whom, as Sertori himself recalls, he had already won a medal as a four-year-old and secured several placings in aptitude classes.
His move to Sertori coincided with a particularly significant six-year-old season.
“He is a horse of exceptional quality and is extremely rideable,” the rider said.
These are qualities that Onlyou has progressively translated into results.
During the season, he won the 2025 FISE Six-Year-Old Circuit Final, sponsored by Avantea, earning qualification for the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken, one of the foremost international showcases for young showjumping horses.
According to Filippo Sertori, Onlyou also produced a positive performance in Belgium. Further confirmation came just a few weeks later, when the stallion brought his six-year-old season to a close with victory in the MASAF Finals.
Onlyou continues to deliver as a seven-year-old
This year, Onlyou has continued to distinguish himself in classes reserved for seven-year-old horses. In 2026, he has competed on the FISE Seven-Year-Old Circuit, winning the Seven-Year-Old Grand Prix at Le Lame di Montefalco and securing his place in the finals scheduled to take place in Verolanuova at the end of August.
Alongside his sporting career, Onlyou has also begun his breeding career, with his first foals recently born. It is naturally far too early to draw any conclusions about the quality of his offspring, but this nevertheless marks the beginning of a new chapter for a stallion who was himself the result of a carefully targeted genetic selection programme.
Assisted reproduction and greater predictability: what does it really mean?
One of the key topics addressed by Filippo Sertori is the possibility of achieving, through targeted selection, greater predictability in the sporting characteristics of future offspring.
It is important, however, to clarify what this actually means. Genetics cannot predict a horse’s sporting future with certainty. No reproductive technology can guarantee the birth of a champion, because between genetic inheritance and sporting achievement lie countless other variables, including growth, conformation, health, management, nutrition, training, environment and, ultimately, the rider.
What can be influenced is probability.
Starting with a mare who has already demonstrated sporting ability, or with a bloodline that has produced several competitive horses, and pairing her with a stallion selected on the basis of his characteristics and proven progeny allows breeders to build their programmes on a significantly stronger body of information.
Assisted reproduction therefore becomes a tool in the service of selective breeding, enabling breeders to make broader use of genetic combinations considered to be of particular interest.
“Horses with something different.”
It is perhaps one of the simplest observations, yet also one of the most effective ways of summarising Filippo Sertori’s experience with horses produced through Avantea’s technologies.
Avantea Legacy in Sport: from genetics to results
It is precisely this transition, from genetic selection to the competition arena, that lies at the heart of Avantea Legacy in Sport.
The project aims to explore what happens after assisted reproductive technologies have been employed: following horses produced through these programmes as they grow and, once they enter sport, observing the results they achieve in competition.
Each episode therefore focuses on one horse, its pedigree and the people who have played a part in its journey: breeders, owners and riders.
In the second episode, that story belongs to Onlyou di Villagana and Filippo Sertori.
Ph. Marco Proli
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