Autumn Angel goes up for sale on Inglis Digital
Group 1 winner Autumn Angel (The Autumn Sun) will be offered in a standalone Inglis Digital Online Sale with bidding on the mare set to open at 9am on Monday and the final countdown to begin from 4pm Tuesday.
It was announced on Tuesday that the Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained mare would miss the spring carnival after sustaining a tendon injury, and it has now been confirmed Autumn Angel has run her last race and will be offered online as a breeding prospect.
“I’ve had some good ones and trust me, this girl was right up there in the top bracket,” said Moody.
“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.”
The daughter of The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) won four and was placed in five her 11 starts, with her crowning glory coming in last season’s Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m), while she also landed the Kewney Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) and Ethereal Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m), in a career that saw her accrue $1,188,040 in prize-money.
Heaven sent! 🪽🪽
Autumn Angel wins the G1 Australian Oaks for @moodyracingpgm and @kscoleman!@aus_turf_club pic.twitter.com/mmCISR0bgt
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) April 13, 2024
Autumn Angel was a $230,000 purchase by her owner Dalziel Bloodstock and Moody Racing from the draft of her breeders Arrowfield Stud at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and Dalziel described the four-year-old 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 is, 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 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 1300 metres to 2400 metres 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 1500 metres 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.’’
Autumn Angel is the best of three winners from four to come from the Group 3-winning Hussonet (Mr. Prospector) mare Angel Of Mercy, who was also second to Cosmic Endeavour (Northern Meteor) in the 2014 Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m).
Oaks winners have a stellar record at stud, in particular Australian Oaks winners.
Since 2000, Rising Romance (Ekraar), who won the Australian Oaks in 2014, produced Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Yearning (Snitzel), while Dizelle (Zabeel), winner of the Sydney Classic in 2005, went on to foal VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Pinot (Pierro).
The 2003 triumphant Sunday Joy (Sunday Silence), was the dam of multiple Group 1-winning champion More Joyous (More Than Ready), while Republic Lass (Canny Lad), who won the Group 1 in 2002, subsequently produced South African Grade 1 winner The Conglomerate (Lonhro).
Oaks winners across Australia in general have gone on to produce the likes of Group 1 winners Anamoe (Street Boss), Stay With Me (Street Cry) and Miami Bound (Reliable Man) among others, while since 2000, of Oaks-winning mares in Australia who have had foals to race, 14 per cent have produced a Group 1 winner, 36 per cent have produced a stakes winner and 54 per cent have produced a stakes horse.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said Autumn Angel presented a rare opportunity for breeders.
“I watched her debut run as a two-year-old on my phone – she was desperately unlucky not to beat Legacies over 1200 metres 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.”
The catalogue will go live at inglisdigital.com this coming Friday afternoon, with bidding to open at 9am on Monday.
The final countdown of bidding will begin from 4pm Tuesday.