GREG Broderick joined forces with Andrew and Niall Hughes of Ennisnag Stud last weekend to pay €27,000 for a three-parts sister to McLain Ward’s superstar mare Sapphire.

Queen Vegas Van’t Merelsnest, a chesnut filly, topped the sale at the annual Flanders Foal Auction and is now destined for a new home in Kilkenny this autumn, before being bred at Ballypatrick when she matures.