It might have been a tad harder earned than her long odds-on price would have predicted but Autumn Glow stamped every bit of her queen-like class in winning the Champions Mile at Flemington.
In her first race at the course and her first run outside of Sydney, even the most minor inkling of the change in scene interrupting anything at all was put to bed.
Scoring by 1¼-lengths, Autumn Glow ($1.18) had to shake off a gallant effort from stablemate Lindermann ($16) as she loomed up on the gelding at the top of the straight to settle Chris Waller’s usually calmer nerves on the line in the Group 1 1600-metre feature.
“I was (nervous) because you don’t want a horse like Autumn Glow to disappoint,” Chris Waller said.
“There’s a massive crowd here today and it was good to see her go through her paces. She had to put up a fight. Lindermann, he dug deep and to come away that last 100 metres, it was special.”
Autumn Glow became the 23rd horse to win the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes (1609m) and the Champions Mile in the same year while Waller notched his fifth win in the race stretching back to Albert The Fat in 2013.
Her record moves to 15 wins in 16 starts and earned more than $14.5 million in prizemoney James Mcdonald in the saddle for 11 of those victories.
“She was a little bit lost, at sea a bit, and even when we straightened and I gave her a click, she took about 50 metres to get going,” McDonald said.
“But once she opened the shoulders up, she was never going to get rolled. She’s just a brilliant specimen, a pleasure to ride, she’s just so, so special.”
The star jockey agreed that the five-year-old mare is Australia’s undisputed champion miler and she needed every bit of that characteristic to prevail at Flemington.
“I think so,” McDonald said.
“Now that she’s had this run here, it’s very foreign to her, but you look up at the Flemington straight, the roses, the people, she knew she was somewhere different and she was a little slow to balance and quicken up, but she’s a champion.
“Champions make their own luck in this game and she just plants herself on speed and away she goes.”
“She’s an absolute pleasure to ride. A jockey’s dream.”
Buckaroo($14) filled the minor placing giving the Waller stable a clean sweep of the top three.
