After Piper Star scored a resouding win in Saturday’s $A201,000 Carlyon Cup (1600m) at Caulfield, Bruford recalled how he happened to purchase the leading Australian Cup candidate.

Bruford said he was in Australia for the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and had marked down Piper Star as a horse he was interested in buying. However, he then found out that she had been withdrawn from the sale because of a minor injury.

Bruford persisted in his enthusiasm to buy her by tracking down her breeder in Victoria and making an offer of $50,000 to buy her.

"I was very keen to buy her because I had a big opinion of her family and knew that Melora was a very promising galloper at the time. Fortunately the breeder accepted my offer and we were able to bring her over to New Zealand," he said.

Bruford was joined in the racing interests of Piper Star by Auckland patent business owner Jim Piper. In addition Piper Star’s owners also include Bruford’s wife, Anne, and their three children – Anthony, Fraser and Callum.

Piper Star subsequently joined the stable of Matamata trainer Roger James who also knew her family well.

James trained Melora (by Kaapstad’s sire Sir Tristram) who was a group two winner of the Hollindale Cup in Queensland and group one second in the Queensland Derby.

Melora is owned by Windsor Park Stud in Cambridge where she produced a Volkrsaad filly foal last year and is currently in foal to Montjeu.

Bruford said Piper Star showed a lot of ability from the outset and scored two trials wins before making a stylish winning debut at Matamata. James immediately set Piper Star on a path of black-type three-year-old races in New Zealand during which she recorded group two second placings in the Grosvenor Championship Stakes at Ellerslie and Eulogy Stakes at Awapuni.

Piper Star became a foundation member of Roger James’ Melbourne stable last October and she immediately acquitted herself well on the other side of the Tasman with a group three win in the Matriarch Stakes at Flemington during the spring carnival.

She was spelled after the spring carnival and then swept back into prominence with a comprehensive winning performance over 1400m at Flemington in Melbourne on New Year’s Day. A third placing at Moonee Valley followed before Piper Star outstayed her rivals to win the Carlyon Cup.

The next assignment for Piper Star will be the group two $A201,000 St George Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield followed by a tilt at the group one $A1.25 million Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 11.

The success of Piper Star in the Carlyon Cup added to a golden season for her sire, Kaapstad, on both sides of the Tasman.

Kaapstad has been represented by seven individual stakes-winners this season, which have own a total of eight stakes races.

Just a week ago Kaapstad had another stakes-winner in Australia when Kaapgun won the Listed Parramatta Cup in Sydney.