Car Colston Hall takes centre stage with Gold Cup winner Brando

Brando's victory in Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup provided another feather for the cap of his breeder, Nicholas and Jane Forman Hardy's Car Colston Hall Stud and its foundation mare Wiener Wald.

The daughter of Woodman was acquired by the Forman Hardys at the Keeneland sales in 1995 and has since gone on to be a fantastic servant to the Nottinghamshire stud. However, the mares owners enjoyed a large slice of luck when it came to securing Wiener Wald, as stud manager Jonathon Smithers explains.

“They spent five days looking at mares in Kentucky and decided on Wiener Wald. When she went through the ring there was some strong opposition, but the people who were bidding against them didn’t seem to understand the auctioning system and while they were in the middle of a debate the mare was knocked down to Nicholas and Jane.”