Autumn Glow remains unbeaten in Golden Eagle
In an incredible achievement, the Chris Waller-trained Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) stretched her unbeaten record to eight and collected a winner’s prize of $5.25 million when she landed Saturday’s Golden Eagle (1500m) at Randwick, writes Dan Harrold.
Sent off the odds-on favourite in the $10 million showpiece, having previously scored in the Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) on October 4, the four-year-old star mare stormed down the home straight under James McDonald, pulling 1.3 lengths clear of Sepals (Calyx) to maintain a remarkable record.
The Lindsay Park-trained Evaporate (Per Incanto) finished a further 0.3 lengths behind in third place.
“She gives me that ooh-la-la feeling. I’d love to see her in a Cox Plate,” McDonald said of his mount.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the best version of her yet either, we’re so lucky to have her.
“She was out on her feet and she just keeps finding, she is fair dinkum. She knew she was in a race today and it was all due to the heavy ground, it was very testing out there for her.”
Meanwhile, winning trainer Waller was unwilling to compare Autumn Glow to his former superstar mare Winx (Street Cry), who built up a 33-win sequence, but issued a glowing report on the daughter of The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice).
“Autumn Glow is a star, it is as simple as that,” he said from Flemington. “She does it each and every time. There is nothing that shows us that much at home – that heart and determination and presence that she has is really quite special.
“Today’s race was tricky. We could see the track was hard to get a handle on, some horses aren’t getting through the going as well as you would like, horses on pace were dominating.
“So, we knew we had to be a bit closer and they were running fast through the midstages, and James was at her to stay with them.
“For her to come out as Darren Flindell said to ‘open the shoulders’ was pretty special to watch.”
First purchased by Silverdale Farm and Shrone Bloodstock for $600,000 at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale out of the Newhaven Park draft, Autumn Glow then sold to Arrowfield Pastoral and Hermitage Thoroughbreds for $1.8 million out of Silverdale Farm at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale the following year.
“She’s just everything we try to do,’’ Silverdale’s Steve Grant said. “All the preparation you put into them, teaching them how to stay cool, lead them across that treadmill every day, it’s all worth it and it just came so natural for her.
“The guys loved her when they saw her but it is that thing, when you start teaching them how to be a young horse during that early education period, you know some are special and we knew she was special.
“It’s a pleasure to sit back and watch and it means everything for us. It’s remarkable when you get a horse like this and the sky’s the limit for her, they’ve got so much to play with.’’
Autumn Glow added the Golden Eagle to her wins in the Epsom, Theo Marks Stakes (Gr 2, 1300m), Toy Show Quality (Gr 3, 1100m), Tea Rose Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), Up And Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m) and Darby Munro Stakes (Listed, 1200m), with her career prize-money haul now standing at a whopping $7.35 million.