First Group winner for The Autumn Sun makes history

Arrowfield Stud’s first-season sire The Autumn Sun sired his first stakes winner when the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Autumn Ballet became the first horse in history to win the Group 3 Black Opal Stakes on debut yesterday. 

The two-year-old filly showed glimpses of her talent when winning a trial at Rosehill on February 27 and she was able to shrug off some more experienced rivals when scooting clear inside the final stages to beat her stablemate The Years, a son of Time Test, by just over two lengths. Make A Call was a further length and a quarter away in third at the end of the 6f contest at Canberra.

Bred by Arrowfield, the filly is the third foal and second winner out of Grisi, a Street Cry half-sister to the Group 2 Zabeel Mile winner Zakouski and the Group 3 Prix Thomas Byron winner King's Command. She is also a half-sister to Albrecht, who is by The Autumn Sun's sire Redoute's Choice, and won the Group 3 Up And Coming Stakes and was second in the Golden Rose.

Their dam O'Giselle is an unraced full-sister to the champion sire and Horse of the Year Lonhro and to Niello, victorious in the Rosehill Guineas and Spring Champion Stakes.

Autumn Ballet was sold by Arrowfield to her trainers and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds for A$340,000 (£186,109/€210,405) at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale last year and her year-younger full-sister is catalogued as Lot 157 in this year's sale.

One of six starters for The Autumn Sun, the best horse sired by the brilliant Redoute's Choice, Autumn Ballet becomes the stallion’s second winner. 

Successful in five Group 1 contests, The Autumn Sun was bred by the Aga Khan in partnership with Arrowfield Stud, and is out of Azmiyna, a Galileo half-sister to the Aga Khan's Irish Champion Stakes, King George, St James's Palace Stakes and Prince of Wales's Stakes champion Azamour. Azmaniya, his three-year-old half-sister by Deep Impact is unraced but holds an entry in the Irish Oaks. Their second dam Asmara won the Listed Trigo Stakes and is a Lear Fan half-sister to Astarabad, the Prix Ganay winner and sire.

The Autumn Sun was himself a graduate of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, making A$700,000 to agent Guy Mulcaster on behalf of Hermitage Thoroughbreds and Chris Waller Racing. The first horse to complete the Caulfield, Randwick and Rosehill Guineas hat-trick, The Autumn Sun also won the Group 1 JJ Atkins Stakes at two and the Golden Rose as a three-year-old. He retired to stud at Arrowfield following the death of his sire in 2019.

The Autumn Sun stood for a fee of A$66,000 in 2022.  

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