![John Messara talks to Autumn Glow's jockey Kieran McEvoy alongside Arrowfield's Jon Freyer [Bradley Photos]](https://betsy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/2166656.jpg)
Autumn Glow stunned John Messara the first time he saw her and ever since he has been stunning family and friends with his reaction to the unbeaten mare.
Before the unique, exquisite beast got to the track, she had been turning heads at sale yards, and the Arrowfield Stud boss had been hearing about her.
“My people told me at Magic Millions, there was a filly from one of our stallions [The Autumn Sun] that was going to bring big money as a weanling,” Messara said. “She was sold for $600,000 as a foal, that’s amazing, so it was always going to be interesting how she would develop.”
“At the yearling sales, I always try to see all the stock from our stallions, and my people again said to me at the Easter sale, you need to see this filly at Silverdale.”
“I went over with my wife [Christine] and when she came out of the box – she was stunning. I said to them ‘take her back in’.”
“Chris said to me, ‘What are you doing?’
“I had seen enough of her to know I wanted to buy her, and I didn’t want them to know.”
Messara went back and rang Hermitage and told them he had found a filly and he would be buying her. He quoted around $1 million and asked if they would like to come in for half. They agreed.
“When she came into the ring I was sitting there and I wasn’t going to let her go,” Messara said. “She quickly got past our limit, but I kept going.”
“My son Paul hadn’t seen me like that and thought I had gone mad when I got her for $1.8 million.”
“I had to ring Hermitage and tell them that I had blown the budget to get her, and I was happy to take her home myself but they were happy to honour our deal.”
Topping the Easter Sale is not a guarantee of success, but Autumn Glow has lived up to her hefty price tag and a seventh straight victory in the Epsom would return her purchase fee in prizemoney.
But her value beyond the track could end up being many-fold more than her price in the ring.
If she does win at Randwick on Saturday, it would give her a unique place in history as the only Epsom winner in 160 years to remain unbeaten.
“She has been what I saw at the sales, an amazing athlete, but she has to do it at the top level,” Messara said. “Everyone around her tells you how good she is, and you have to try and stay in the moment and wait to get that Group 1.”
An important part of getting Autumn Glow to the Epsom has been trainer Chris Waller. He was hand-chosen for the job, but with one caveat.
“Hermitage have horses with Chris, and the way he trains I thought would suit her. But when I gave him the horse I told him, she wasn’t to race as a two-year-old,” Messara remembered.
Waller followed the instructions, but she was ready to run as an August three-year-old.
Autumn Glow instantly got fans around the stable with natural ability and nature. Waller’s lead trackwork rider, Chris Harwood, made sure no one else rides the three-year-old and she was quickly working with the stars of the stable.
“I give the keys to James or Kerrin on raceday and then take them straight back,” Harwood said. “I don’t like letting everyone else ride her. It’s not because she is difficult, she is so smooth.”
“She is just a horse that doesn’t come along that often.”
But Autumn Glow hasn’t been able to show it on the biggest stage as yet.
She was an odds-on favourite for the Flight Stakes at this meeting last year but had to be scratched when a bone chip in a fetlock was discovered.
Patience was required again in the autumn, when she was late into work and missed her goal in the Arrowfield Stud Stakes with spiked temperature on race morning.
It hasn’t stopped the rave reviews from jockeys during her perfect record on the track.
“She’s very good. She’s just so economical in her action,” James McDonald said after her Tea Rose win.
“She’s got a great constitution, good strength about her and a really good mind.”
He will be in Melbourne on Saturday, so Kerrin McEvoy gets the seat on Autumn Glow for her biggest test.
“She is one of the best mares I have ridden,” McEvoy said.
“She has a Ferrari-like feel. When you work her in evens, it feels like she is cantering.”
Messara will have up to 50 family and friends at Epsom, “a good horse gets you friends,” he mused, but he knows that racing isn’t about talk, it is about results.
However, the buzz around Autumn Glow has had Messara field offers for her.
“It’s silly money really, I can’t even tell what I have been offered,” Messara said.
“But all I would be doing with the money is buy more horses, and at my age, you just want to enjoy a really good horse.”
“We have been patient with her and hopefully it’s going to pay off, starting with the Epsom.”
Autumn Glow stays perfect! 🌟
She keeps her unbeaten record intact with victory in the G2 Theo Marks Stakes.@KPMcEvoy @cwallerracing pic.twitter.com/UoI1hlapKa
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) September 13, 2025
