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G1 star Autumn Angel to be offered on Inglis Digital next week

26th Sep 2024

Brilliant G1-winning filly Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun) will be offered for public auction in a boutique Inglis Digital Online Sale early next week.

The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained 4YO was one of the most talented fillies of her generation.

From 11 career starts she won four races – including at G1, G2 and G3 level – and finished in the minor placings a further five times.

Purchased by Wylie Dalziel and Moody at the 2022 Easter Yearling Sale for $230,000, Autumn Angel retires with career earnings of $1,188,040.

While she won the G3 Ethereal Stakes - which earned her favouritism for the G1 Victorian Oaks - last spring, it was this year’s autumn carnivals that saw Autumn Angel reach elite heights.

Her victory in the G1 Australian Oaks at Randwick was extraordinary, defeating the likes of Zardozi (G1 VRC Oaks winner), Orchestral (dual G1 winner), Tutta La Vita (3xG1 placed) and Quintessa (G1 winner) etc in what was billed as the best renewal of the race in decades.

Prior to her Oaks win, Autumn Angel was victorious in the G2 Kewney Stakes over 1600m, was desperately unlucky in the G2 Angus Armanasco Stakes over 1400m and finished 2^nd – carrying 61kg – in the G3 Adrian Knox Stakes.

The appeal of Autumn Angel to breeders is best summarised by the words of her co-trainer Moody, who said: “I’ve had some good ones and trust me, this girl was right up there in the top bracket.

“She was a special racehorse who had so much ahead of her on the track but instead, it’s now time for her to become a mum and she’ll be one heck of a broodmare, mark my words.”

Oaks winners have a terrific record at stud, in particular Australian Oaks winners.

Since 2000, Rising Romance has produced G1 winner Yearning, Dizelle produced G1 winner Pinot, Sunday Joy produced G1 winner More Joyous while Republic Lass produced G1 winner The Conglomerate.

Oaks winners across Australia in general have gone on to produce the likes of G1 winners Anamoe, Stay With Me, Miami Bound, etc while since 2000, of Oaks-winning mares in Australia who have had foals to race, 14% have produced a G1 winner, 36% have produced a Stakes winner and 54% have produced a Stakes horse.

Recently retired after sustaining a tendon injury, Autumn Angel is being offered as a breeding prospect in the boutique online auction.

The catalogue will go live at inglisdigital.com this coming Friday afternoon (September 27), with bidding to open at 9am Monday (September 30).

The final countdown of bidding will begin from 4pm Tuesday, October 1.

To organise an inspection of Autumn Angel, please contact Inglis’ Victorian Bloodstock Manager James Price on 0409 806 595.

Dalziel described Autumn Angel as “the best filly I’ve ever had anything to do with, and there’s been plenty of good ones over the past 20 years’’.

“That’s the saddest thing, while this filly was already proven at the elite level there’s no doubt whatsoever that her best was still ahead of her,’’ Dalziel said.

“When we bought her at Easter she had so much scope for improvement and that’s all she’s done since is improve, improve, improve, to the point where she came back recently after spelling in Queensland over winter and Moods and Katherine [Coleman] and the team couldn’t believe she was the same horse, she’d just grown and developed and filled out into herself even more.

“When they see her, people will understand what I mean when I say she’s a machine, she’s such a gorgeous mare with all the right physical attributes that breeders want and need.

“She won from 1300m to 2400m but Moods was training her as a miler for this campaign. She held noms for the Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup but we were targeting the Golden Eagle over 1500m and the Empire Rose over a mile, that’s how good she’d come back.

“Moods was heartbroken when he called me and told me she’d done the injury, he genuinely thought she was going to be the superstar of the spring carnival and beyond but now it’s time to let a breeder manage the next phase of her career.’’

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch, while disappointed at the premature end of the racing career of an emerging star, is excited by the opportunity that Autumn Angel represents for investors.

“I watched her debut run as a 2YO on my phone – she was desperately unlucky not to beat Legacies over 1200m at Cranbourne,” Hutch said.

“At that stage, it was obvious that she was supremely talented and she has done nothing but impress throughout her career.

“Anyone who saw her in the mounting yard before the Oaks in Sydney in April will have fallen in love with her on the spot – she is beautiful – and it’s heartbreaking for the owners that she won’t be racing on because her race record is one that doesn’t quite do justice to her ability, as accomplished as she was.

“We see it time and time again, these race fillies with genuine class are inclined to impart it to their offspring and she’s got a pedigree that features the likes of Redoute’s Choice, Galileo, Hussonet, so all the ingredients are there.”