Australia: Autumn Glow rebounds in Winx Stakes for fourth career Group I triumph

Rebounding from her lone career loss, Autumn Glow won the fourth Group 1 race of her career in Saturday’s $711,700 Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia for her 12th win in 13 starts.

Ridden by James McDonald, Autumn Glow closed from fourth with three furlongs remaining in the seven-furlong race to take the lead with slightly less than a furlong remaining.

Autumn Glow, a 5-year-old mare, paid $3.20 in American pools and finished slightly more than 1 1/4 lengths in front of Sheza Alibi, the winner of two Group 1 races earlier this year and the 2-1 second choice in the Winx Stakes. Sheza Alibi, a 4-year-old filly, had won her five previous starts.

Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi were expected to dominate the Winx Stakes. Gringotts, a 7-year-old gelding who has won the $1.9 million Big Dance Stakes at a mile at Randwick the last two Novembers, finished third at 19-1.

:: Get free past performances, analysis, and picks for international racing, including Australia

Autumn Glow, trained by Chris Waller, was third in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes against males at 1 1/4 miles at Randwick in April. The Winx Stakes was her first start since then.

Waller had five of the 11 runners in the Winx Stakes after scratching three runners.

After the Winx, Waller predicted Autumn Glow and Sheza Alibi will meet again.

“People come to the races because they want to see these great horses racing each other,” Waller told the press. “We don’t always want the clashes, but it is important for the sport. We have come out of round one pretty well, but I’m pretty sure there will be round two or round three.

“We know how good she is, so nothing has changed,” Waller said of Autumn Glow. “We just needed her to come back and show where she is.”

Waller has won the Winx Stakes 10 times, including from 2016 to 2018 with Winx, the famous mare who won the last 33 races of her 43-race career and was named Australia’s Horse of the Year for four consecutive seasons from 2015-2016 to 2018-2019.

The Winx Stakes was known as the Warwick Stakes until 2018, meaning that Winx won the race the first time it was known as the Winx Stakes.

Autumn Glow is an Australian-bred by the Redoute’s Choice stallion The Autumn Sun.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.