Late bloomer Autumn Glory has shown the benefit of careful handling with her emergence as a serious Classic contender.
Bred and raced by the Smithies family under their Monovale Holdings banner, the Roger James and Robert Wellwood-trained daughter of Ocean Park rounded off powerfully at Te Rapa on Saturday to claim the Gr.2 Waikato Guineas (2000m).
Autumn Glory started at nearly 50 to one and her upset victory has resulted in her promoted to a $4 second favourite for the Gr.1 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai New Zealand Oaks (2400m).
The filly has now won two of her three starts following a debut success at Ruakaka a month ago, and in between times was unplaced on a heavy track in the Listed Oaks Prelude (1800m) at New Plymouth.
“We were very, very patient with her and sometimes you can get a bit stressed when you see all the spring three-year-olds coming out and performing, but if you give every horse the time needed, they can certainly do the job,” Max Smithies said.
Autumn Glory is the last foal of Venus’s Dream, who was purchased by Monovale out of Sledmere Stud’s draft for A$15,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
The late Viscount mare was a half-sister to the two-time Group Three winner and dual Gr.1 Telegraph (1200m) placegetter Spring Heat.
“She was an older girl and is unfortunately no longer with us, but she did a great job,” Smithies said.
“Chris Waller bought a couple of her Ocean Parks and Loveplanet (three wins) was quite a handy horse in Sydney.”
Loveplanet was a $140,000 yearling at Karaka while her brother Existential Bob realised A$60,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale and has won twice for the champion trainer.
“We always thought she nicked well with Ocean Park and left a great type, so we were pretty pleased to get a filly,” Smithies said.
“We always try to keep a few of the fillies and liked Autumn Glory from a young age, so we were happy to keep her to race for ourselves.”
Monovale is currently breeding from a broodmare band of around 20.
“We try to be quite critical of what we breed and really chasing the quality over quantity,” Smithies said.
They enjoyed a 100 percent clearance rate at last month’s New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale with five in Riversley Park’s draft and two in Landsdowne Park’s consignment.
“We were very pleased with the sale, and it works very well for (brother) Joe and I, in terms of having to get in extra staff for yearling preps,” Smithies said.
Their top-priced youngster was offered by Riversley, with a son of Satono Aladdin selling for $400,000 to trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Champion Thoroughbreds and Kestrel Thoroughbreds.
The colt is out of the unraced Snitzel mare Sayyzel and the family of the multiple Group One winners and sires Ocean Park and Grunt.
A Savabeel filly, also in the Riversley draft, was knocked down to the Sunlight Trust and Phil Cataldo for $250,000.
Her dam is the O’Reilly mare Miss Opulence, a half-sister to Sir Slick and the Monovale bred and raced Puccini, who between them won eight top-flight titles.