Champion jockey James McDonald finally got the opportunity to ride Autumn Glow – and it was worth the wait! Autumn Glow maintained her unbeaten record with consummate win in the Group 2 $300,000 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) at Royal Randwick on Saturday. McDonald was riding Autumn Glow in race conditions after he couldn’t make the filly’s weight for her debut win last month and then he was interstate when she won the Up And Coming Stakes. But it is fair to say McDonald won’t want to give up the ride on the emerging Chris Waller-trained filly after she made it three wins from as many starts.
“Autumn Glow’s got all the class in the world, have a look at her,” McDonald said. “She’s just so economical in her action, she’s got a great constitution, good strength about her (and a) really good mind – and she’ll keep improving, too. “To Chris’ credit, he said, ‘you ride her, you’re on top, you go with her.
I’ve got as much faith in the filly as I do you.” McDonald had to ride Autumn Glow ($2.05 favourite) outside her comfort zone by settling outside the leader early before she forged to the front halfway down the straight and won untroubled by one-and-a-quarter lengths from the fast-finishing Snow In May ($14) with Manaal ($3.
90) a nose away third. Waller said the only riding instructions he gave McDonald were to have “Autumn Glow happy and comfortable”. “James said, ‘She’s got a beautiful action (and) I’m not going to take it away from her so I said just have her comfortable, and that’s what he did,” Waller said.
“She’s probably a little bit foreign in that territory, but she’s all class. If we get a perfect draw in the Flight stakes, we can go back to riding her where we need to if she’s comfortable.” Waller said Autumn Glow is the “spitting image” of her sire, Arrowfield Stud’s boom young stallion The Autumn Sun, who he trained to win five Group 1 races.
Autumn Glow would appear to set to win her first Group 1 with the $750,000 Flight Stakes (1600m) at Royal Randwick on October 5 seemingly at her mercy. Her main danger in the Flight Stakes could well be Snow In May who provided the stallion The Autumn Sun with the Tea Rose Stakes quinella. Arrowfield Stud supremo John Messara races Autumn Glow and described the filly as “something special”.
“This is her first preparation, she has gone from height to height to height – what she is doing is ridiculous,” Messara said. “But we want to look after her so we won’t go beyond the Flight Stakes. She will be even better next year.
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