Rubira

Colin and Melba Bryce's Laundry Cottage Stud is home to 15 broodmares and, though the Hertfordshire operation could certainly be described as boutique, its paddocks have witnessed the formative years of two of the most talked-about horses of recent times. Wootton Bassett (GB) was born there in 2008 and the Group 1-winning juvenile-turned-supersire now commands a stud fee of €300,000. A decade later came Via Sistina (Ire), a 5,000-guinea yearling who became a multi-millionaire on the track and was the top-rated mare in the world last year. While Melba, who...

It took until the final lot of the Goffs February Sale for the six-figure mark to be reached and it was a round €100,000 for the top lot of the two days, Rubira (Aus), a young southern hemisphere-bred daughter of Lope De Vega (Ire) in foal for the first time to New Bay (GB). The 6-year-old mare was formerly trained in by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman in New Zealand where she won the listed Diamond Lodge Gt North Champagne S. She was bought from the Baroda Stud draft by...