Arrowfield Stud were the leading vendor by aggregate at Inglis Easter earlier this week, but it was one of their cheaper yearlings that became the latest stakes-winner for their top class sire The Autumn Sun at Randwick on Saturday.
Promising three year-old gelding Autumn Break is trained at Albury by Kym Davison and when he missed a start in the $1million Country Championships Final, connections elected to run him in the Group III ATC Carbine Club Stakes (1600m) instead.
Ridden by Sam Clipperton, Autumn Break enjoyed the step out to 1600m for the first time and was doing his best work on the line to beat the Chris Waller trained Kilman by a head in a thriller.
“That’s our first city winner, so not a bad one to break the ice with that’s for sure. We were hoping to be in the next race, but this is a nice consolation,” said Kym Davison.
“The horse is bred to run 2000m, so we’ve been keeping him fresh for the 1400m and when we didn’t qualify, you’ve got to be up here anyway as an emergency, so we might as well have a throw at the stumps in this race.
“Perfect ride, he got a great cart into the race and produced him at the right time, it was a great win.”
The win was an emotional one for Kym Davison as he lost his brother last week following a long illness.
Autumn Break was a modest $40,000 Inglis Classic purchase for his trainer from the Arrowfield draft and has four wins and two placings from seven starts with prizemoney topping $230,000.
“There’s about 20 blokes in it, about 10 blokes I paid footy with back in the 90s. We kind of fell away from each other for a while, but met again at the races. Canny Hell was in the Country Championships last year and this bloke is out of a half-sister to Canny Hell’s mum,” Davison revealed.
“We saw him at the sale, he was only a little thing and we got him for 40 grand.”
Bred by Arrowfield, he is the best of two winners from the now retired Isdaal (GB), a winning half-sister by Dubawi to Group II winner Junoob.
Autumn Break is the 11th stakes-winner for The Autumn Sun, who is riding high this season thanks to his Group I winning stars Autumn Glow and Autumn Boy.
