Coco Sun shines in South Australian Derby triumph
Three-year-old filly caps off another fine afternoon at Morphettville for Arrowfield’s rising star The Autumn Sun
Three weeks and a day ago, second season sire The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) didn’t have a Group 1 winner to his name and, for some, the wait was becoming tense.
Now they seem to be dropping like leaves from tree around this time of year.
By the end of Saturday, Arrowfield’s young stallion had three, after his shining autumn grew even brighter with Coco Sun’s outstanding, fighting victory in Saturday’s South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) at Morphettville.
Bred by Tyreel Stud and bought by trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy and Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock for $250,000 at Inglis Classic 2022, Coco Sun came close to top tier glory last Saturday when The Autumn Sun sired the trifecta in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
As Tony McEvoy lamented to ANZ Bloodstock News on Friday, that for him had come “in the wrong bloody order” as Vibrant Sun beat Private Legacy and Coco Sun ran third.
But while the McEvoys’ runner found two other fillies better on that day, it mattered little as she emerged victorious on Saturday against the colts and geldings, becoming just the third female SA Derby winner in 16 years.
Coco Sun didn’t end up as the first female favourite in the race since Australian Champion Three-Year-Old Filly Decidedly (Al Maher) won in 2015. With Coco Sun easing to $5 by post time, that tag instead went to Chris Waller’s last-start VRC St Leger (Listed, 2800m) winner Ahuriri (Almanzor), who was backed in to start $4.80 in female-dominated betting.
But still Coco Sun reigned supreme, with her 1.3 length triumph over $6 third-favourite Warmonger (War Decree) completing a four-Saturday treble of Group 1 winners for The Autumn Sun that began with Autumn Angel’s ATC Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) on April 13.
In an all homegrown affair, Coco Sun brought the first victory in the race for the South Australia-reared McEvoys, and a first home town Group 1 for the now Melbourne-based jockey Jamie Kah.
And Kah treated Coco Sun to a near-perfect ride, finding the fence from gate eight to sit behind longshot leader Air Assault (Justify). When that gelding rolled away from the fence in the straight, Coco Sun pushed up doggedly on his inside and surged clear over the final 150m, holding plenty in reserve to defy Warmonger’s rattling finish.
Air Assault held on well for third at $26, ahead of New Zealand raider Antrim Coast (Roc De Cambes) at $7.50, with Ahuriri fifth.
The victory brought further fulfilment for Arrowfield boss John Messara’s long-held contention that The Autumn Sun, who managed just two lower-level stakes winners in his first season of runners, would be more a sire of three-year-olds – particularly those striving towards Classic distances – than juveniles.
It also came on a day when The Autumn Sun’s third-top selling yearling – $950,000 Gold Coast buy Seasons Of Mist – streaked away with an 1870-metre Newcastle maiden at her sixth start for Kris Lees.
In a week when Arrowfield denied temptation and kept The Autumn Sun’s service fee at $66,000 (inc GST), the eight-year-old now has 35 winners for 2023-24. He sits second by that marker on the Australian second-season sires’ table, behind the 38 of overall leader Trapeze Artist (Snitzel), while Coco Sun’s $547,000 from yesterday has him also nosing up behind second-placed Justify (Scat Daddy) on the earnings rankings.
Tony McEvoy, delighted with a win that atoned for his second as a jockey in the SA Derby of 1977 on So Called (Sobig) and he confirmed Coco Sun would now strive to provide her sire with a fourth Group 1 win in the Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) at Eagle Farm on June 8.
“It’s very exciting. These are the races we like to win,” McEvoy said, adding he’d had no doubts about Coco Sun backing up from last Saturday’s 2000-metre third placing in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m), also under Kah.
“This filly’s a really good filly. Calvin and Jamie were very bullish about backing her up and I spoke to her owner Terry Jarvis, who’s in New Zealand, and Terry backed us and said, ‘If the filly’s fine, go ahead’.
“Jamie had so much faith in her. She said she wanted to bounce out and put her up there. The only question I had was the 2500 metres, but you don’t argue with Jamie Kah, and she gave her just a beautiful trip, and the filly stayed it beautifully.”
Like a few other of The Autumn Sun’s offspring, Coco Sun showed she was developing last spring. She ended with five unplaced runs to show for it, but all in stakes company, capped by a nine-length fifth in the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m).
“She didn’t win but she ran really well in all of them,” McEvoy said. “She was just getting run off her legs in the early ones. She ran fifth in the Wakeful, and she actually ran really well in the Oaks. She didn’t quite run [2500m] out in the spring.”
This campaign, Coco Sun returned for two starts before the Australasian Oaks and won them both – in a Sandown fillies’ Benchmark 64 over 1400 metres, and a Bendigo Benchmark 70 over 1600 metres.
“She’s developed beautifully,” McEvoy said. “I’m very proud of her.”
Kah said she hadn’t been “worried about the 2500 metres at all”.
“Last week, she just finished off so well, through the line and after the line. Today [Saturday], she was so tough. She was feeling the pinch but she was still just sticking her head out and trying her best,” said Kah, delighted to have finally broken a hometown top-tier drought.
“All I’ve wanted to do was win a Group 1 in Adelaide in front of Mum and Dad and my family and everyone who supported me.”
Coco Sun is the fifth and best foal of city winner Miss Hufflepuff (Encosta De Lago), who’s shown hints of versatility through her next foal Nymphadora (Yes Yes Yes), who was third at $101 in Randwick’s Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) in December.
The McEvoys went back to the same well at Inglis Classic Yearling Sale this year, buying Miss Hufflepuff’s filly by So You Think (High Chaparral) from Tyreel Stud for $240,000, in conjunction with First Light Racing and Belmont Bloodstock.
Miss Hufflepuff has delivered six straight fillies since Tyreel bought her following her initial male foal and she missed to Hellbent (I Am Invincible) in 2022.
But in news that was looking decidedly momentous last night, the 13-year-old is now back in-foal to The Autumn Sun.