23 March 2019

Again the margin was narrow, but The Autumn Sun won his fifth Group 1 at just his ninth start to cement his position as Australasia’s premier colt when he edged out Kiwi colt Arrogant to win the Rosehill Guineas on Saturday.

Stepping to 2000 metres for the first time, The Autumn Sun ($1.40 fav) looked to cruise to the leaders turning for home but could not shake Arrogant ($26), who was coming off a placing in New Zealand, with his trainer Mike Moroney also preparing the third horse Chapada ($26).

Jockey Kerrin McEvoy said in reference to the heavy surface that The Autumn Sun showed ‘an amount of grit because he wasn’t liking that ground’.

Trainer Chris Waller noted the Randwick Guineas and Rosehill Guineas were both decided in tight finishes: “He’s got a habit of doing that.”

Waller said the testing conditions meant the rise to 2000 metres was more like racing over 2400 metres or further.

Waller would not be drawn on the three-year-old’s future. Logically, the colt would stay at the 2000m and take on the older horses for the first time in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes in three weeks. But that is the race marked as the finale for Winx.

He said a decision on whether The Autumn Sun races again this campaign or indeed, ever, will be made in the coming days.

The Autumn Sun won the 1600-metre J.J. Atkins as a two-year-old before wins in the Golden Rose, Caulfield Guineas, Randwick Guineas and now Rosehill Guineas as a three-year-old.

– Andrew Eddy, Racing.com

Managing owner John Messara can’t wait to see The Autumn Sun over 2000m in Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas with an eye to the future but it will only happen on a drying surface.

The future remains uncertain for the boom colt – taking on Winx or running in the Doncaster are options but a career at Arrowfield Stud appears to be getting closer.

He could be at stud this year or shooting for the Cox Plate, if trainer Chris Waller gets his wish to see him as mature horse in the spring.

“He is the future of Arrowfield Stud and we will be making our decision with that in mind in concert with our fellow owners,” Messara said. “We wouldn’t start him on a bog track on Saturday but the weather has turned and we will run on a slow track.

“There are two races for him after Saturday and everyone knows them – the Doncaster and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes – if he was to have another run.

“He is at some point going to follow in the footsteps of Danehill, Redoute’s Choice and Snitzel on the farm but the decision when has not been made.

“Chris would love to have him for another year because he is only 490 kilos and still has a bit of maturing to do.”

The Autumn Sun is a $1.55 favourite for the Guineas as he looks for a fifth group 1 after his remarkable surge to victory in the Randwick Guineas.

Messara wouldn’t be drawn on what he has to do to set up the dream clash with Winx in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on April 13. He just want him to win again.

Karen Koolman has something that Hugh Bowman and Kerrin McEvoy would love to have: a permanent seat on Winx and The Autumn Sun.

While Bowman and McEvoy experience the glory of race day on the superstars, they have to watch each other on Winx and The Autumn Sun respectively.

Even at the track of a morning, trainer Chris Waller has separate regular riders so it’s only Koolman who has the pleasure of partnering the two champions regularly by riding the star pair for weeks at a time in pre-training at Hermitage Park.

“(They’re) the two best horses I have been on. It is just a dream when I get on them, you can’t wipe the smile off my face,” Koolman said. “To be entrusted by Chris Waller to ride these horses is an honour. You can’t compare them.

“When you are on them you are holding on that bit tighter and you can’t help but think ‘it doesn’t get any better than this’.”

Winx, who lines up in the George Ryder Stakes on Saturday,  needs no introduction. She has won 31 races on end, 23 group 1s, setting records for the past four years. But Koolman is a late comer to her story.

“I first rode Winx when she had already won two Cox Plates, so everyone knew how good she was,” she said.

“She has otherworldly quality about her. She is that good and she knows it.”

Koolman’s passion for horses started as a teenager in Ireland, where she rode out for a point to point stable and worked for two-time Melbourne Cup winner Dermot Weld before coming to Australia and working for Bart Cummings.

Australia became home when she married Oliver Koolman, who manages the racing interests for Hermitage, which part owns The Autumn Sun.

While Winx is extraordinary, there is something extra special to Koolman about The Autumn Sun, a winner of seven of his eight starts, because she has been with him from the start.

“He’s Jeff to me,” she said. “I have ridden him since he was a two-year-old.  He was just a raw bouncy bundle of energy then. He used to like to get up on two legs.

“You don’t bounce that well when you get to my age but I said to Ollie ‘don’t take me off him’. He wasn’t mean, he was just full of energy and you could feel he was special.

“It is a horse like Jeff that makes me love riding because there are challenges. But you can see him learning and improving.

“He bounces likes a gazelle in his action and is getting better with every gallop and every race.”

For the first time at Rosehill on Saturday, Winx and The Autumn Sun will appear on the same race day and Koolman will watch her boy and girl closely.

“You get nervous watching one you have ridden at Kembla in a maiden but these two have done so much more,” Koolman said. “Everyone know thems and we just want them to keep on winning.”

– Chris Roots, Sydney Morning Herald

The breathtaking manner of The Autumn Sun’s Randwick Guineas triumph left even seasoned racing observers shaking their heads and talking about him as one of the best in the world.

Former Godolphin boss John Ferguson is enjoying a long stay in Australia and was trackside as The Autumn Sun picked up five lengths in the final 200 metres to snatch a stunning win.

As if he didn’t quite believe his eyes, Ferguson immediately found a TV screen so he could watch the end stages again.

“It was just exceptional,” Ferguson said. “You just don’t see a horse do that. He is by a champion stallion in Redoute’s Choice from one of the best Aga Khan family, which is a truly international pedigree.

“That was an international standard win and he wouldn’t be out of place anywhere in the world.”

Ferguson said the racing he had seen in the past couple of weeks was up there with an English summer. And the best is yet to come.

“It is York, Royal Ascot and Goodwood rolled into one, it is amazing racing,” he said. “I can’t wait for the next month, it is great to be there.”

David Hayes, the co-trainer of Fundamentalist, watched from Melbourne as his filly was consigned to a fifth group 1 placing, and a third by less than a head.

“I have to say I never thought I would have a group 1 won like that and have it taken away from me like that,” Hayes said. “She just ran into a champion colt, one of the best performances by a three-year-old I have seen. It just had to pick myself up over the ground.”

Fundamentalist will be given her chance to finally get a group 1 win in the Doncaster Mile, where she has 49kg.

– Chris Roots, Sydney Morning Herald

In a Winx-like performance, the champion’s stablemate The Autumn Sun has come from a seemingly impossible position to win the Group I Randwick Guineas and confirm he is Australia’s best three-year-old.

The $1.80 favourite was near the tail of the field early when Miss Fabulass ($21) set off and led by as much as 15 lengths midway through Saturday’s 1600m-race.

Fundamentalist ($15) gave chase and as Miss Fabulass capitulated, the filly took up the challenge and looked to have a winning break halfway down the straight.

But as The Autumn Sun was stoked up by Kerrin McEvoy, his strides got longer and he muscled his way to the line a long head in front of Fundamentalist who is now a five-time Group One runner-up.

“If I didn’t train Winx I wouldn’t have believed that performance,” Waller said.

“She has probably desensitised the emotion of these big race wins.

“That was a glimpse of what she can do and I won’t say any more about her.

“Full credit to this horse. He’s Australia’s next star and I can only tell you how good he is. You’re seeing it but he is a very, very good horse.”

Just how good or how long The Autumn Sun will be a star is yet to be determined with John Messara of Arrowfield Stud hinting he may be serving mares by the spring.

Messara would not be drawn into any plans on race day whether the colt would take on Winx in either the George Ryder or Queen Elizabeth Stakes or head to Royal Ascot.

“We don’t make these decisions on race day,” he said.

“It was important to get today over first.”

Arrowfield bred The Autumn Sun and bought back into the colt shortly before he won the Caulfield Guineas in October.

He is also the winner of the Group I J.J Atkins as a two-year-old and the Group One Golden Rose.

“The exciting part about this horse is he’s not mature yet,” Waller said.

“That is the next question you have to ask ‘do you want an immature horse taking on the world or be around for a bit longer?’ It’s a great thing to be thinking about.”

McEvoy said The Autumn Sun deserved all his accolades.

“He needed to be outstanding today and he was. He was brilliant,” he said.

“I knew he was going to finish strongly and that’s exactly what he did. He ate up the big spacious Randwick straight and really flew the last bit.

“I was worried I was too far back. They were putting the race on solidly from the half mile. He was in a nice rhythm but at the 600 metres I thought ‘far out I’m a long way off them.’

“At the 400 I asked him for a supreme effort and that’s exactly what he gave me.”

“He is a superstar for sure. He’s got a great temperament and it’s going to be great to see him race on – or I’d like to see him race on.”

– AAP, Racenet

Once in a generation: The Autumn Sun Wins the Caufield Guineas with James McDonald in the saddle (AAP)

The Autumn Sun can confirm himself as the best of his generation in Saturday’s Randwick Guineas and further his unique record.

He is already the only horse to win group 1s at three different carnivals against his own age as a two-year-old and three-year-old.

He will join Octagonal, who also took a Cox Plate and Tancred Stakes against older horses, on four group 1s against his own age at two and three, a mark also shared by It’s A Dundeel, which swept the Sydney triple crown after winning the Spring Champion Stakes.

Champion three-year-olds Weekend Hussler and Pierro won six and five by the end of their classic year but only won three against their own age group.