News

Autumn Glow shines again in $10m Golden Eagle

1st Nov 2025

She’s undefeated, she’s the new star of Australian racing and Autumn Glow (The Autumn Sun) is one very special mare.

The 4YO Inglis Easter Yearling Sale superstar made it eight wins from eight starts today with a memorable victory in the $10m Golden Eagle over 1500m at Randwick.

Those closest to her are already running out of superlatives to describe Autumn Glow (pictured), the 2023 Easter sale-topper at $1.8m, selling to Arrowfield and Hermitage Thoroughbreds out of the Silverdale Farm draft.

For Silverdale’s Steve Grant, she’s “amazing, just incredible’’. Her trainer Chris Waller described her as a “star’’ while jockey James McDonald said the mare “gives me that ooh la la feeling’’.

Grant was at Flemington today for Derby Day but watched on in awe as the filly his team prepared for and sold at Easter took her career earnings to $7.3m, having won the G1 Epsom Handicap prior to today’s $10m feature.

“She’s just everything we try to do,’’ 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.’’

Winning trainer Chris Waller added: “She’s a star. It’s as simple as that. She does it each and every time.

“That heart and determination and presence that she has is really quite special. For her to open the shoulders up at the 100m mark was pretty special to watch.

“Hermitage has been right with me the past 10 years, we’ve had some great success and this is just a new level again and Mr and Mrs Messara and their team, they’ve got a great system, are great supporters of racing and breeding and for them to entrust me with a horse they paid a lot of money for is pretty special.’’

Autumn Glow is bred by Newhaven Park and is a three-quarter sister to G1 Golden Rose-winning Easter graduate In The Congo.

She will now be spelled and return in the autumn.

Autumn Glow led in an Inglis graduates quinella in the Golden Eagle, defeating Inglis Classic Yearling Sale graduate Sepals, already a G1 winner himself this spring in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes in September.