News

Rubiton Bloodstock

20th Feb 2006

There is no denying that the last four months have been pretty tough for South Australian based Rubiton Bloodstock.

First the death of their namesake and leading sire Rubiton in November, then earlier this month the loss of prolific producer Mrs Soffel.

Their late sire has a particularly strong affinity to the Premier sale having supplied one of its most high-profile graduates Fields of Omagh. The multiple Group 1 winner sold at the 1999 sale for $50,000 and provided what was perhaps his sire’s most memorable moment when winning the 2003 Cox Plate making the pair the first sire-son combination to win the race since the great Heroic and his son Ajax.

Despite this recent run of bad luck Rubiton Bloodstock Manager Paul Saunders should have a lot to smile about at the Premier sale next month if the quality of his draft is anything to go by.

“It hasn’t been the greatest of years for us but we have some really nice yearlings going to the Premier and Easter sales and some nice foals for next year,” he says.

Naturally Rubiton is well represented, most notably by a filly out of Mrs Soffel. Catalogued as lot 239 she is a full-sister to the Champion Sprinter Rubitano, the stakes winning filly Rubitoff and prolific winner and stakes-placed gelding Superuby.

Among three further lots by the Century sire is lot 65 a full-sister to the multiple Group race winner Truly Wicked out of the At Talaq mare Dizzy Lass.

From the same family is lot 222 an Encosta De Lago filly out of a Rubiton half-sister to Dizzy Lass. Saunders highlights her as perhaps the pick of his draft.

“She’s a quality filly, a lovely athletic type with good bone, a typical Encosta De Lago,” he says.

Buyers can also expect to find other attractive fillies by Peintre Celebre and Royal Academy.

Saunders is particularly enthusiastic about his first lot through the ring (20), which being by Choisir guarantees buyer interest. The colt is out of an unraced three-quarter sister to the outstanding sprinter Innovation Girl, both daughters of Rubiton.

“He looks a real early type, very much like Choisir,” says Saunders.

Sure to be attracting plenty of interest in the Premier II sale is Lot 534. The colt has a major update in his pedigree being out of a Rubiton full-sister to Scarlet Bird, dam of this year’s Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude winner Due Sasso. If Due Sasso is successful in this Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield, Saunders will be a very happy man indeed.

He says “He’s a lovely big, good walking horse.”