10 highlights of Arrowfield’s 2024/25 season
Sensational filly Lady Shenandoah (dark green & red silks) powers up in the Coolmore Classic G1 to claim her third Group 1 victory this season. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
Thank you and congratulations to everyone in racing & breeding who wove the dazzling fabric of the 2024/25 Australasian & Hong Kong season.
Our season review focuses on the horses, results & victories that lit up Arrowfield’s year, centred on the major Spring & Autumn Carnivals in Melbourne & Sydney, Ellerslie & Sha Tin, and selected from many cheer-them-home moments on 34 stakes-winning weekends and two record-setting days in the sale-ring:
Getting our Glow on!
No doubt about it, 3YO filly AUTUMN GLOW (The Autumn Sun-Via Africa) was a star of the season, the kind of horse that brings people to the racetrack, despite the derailment of her Group 1 program by knee chip surgery in the Spring, then a brief encounter with a virus in the Autumn. Her four starts in August, September & March for Arrowfield, Hermitage & Chris Waller produced 4 sparkling victories, three of them at Group 2, Group 3 & Listed level. All going well, she will line up in Group 1 company as a 4YO after a Spring campaign debut in late August.
“She’s a very, very serious horse, she’s got a very bright future.”
– Chris Waller on Autumn Glow
From disappointment to triumph in the Flight Stakes
The twists and turns of racing fortune can sometimes be so rapid that we’ve scarcely registered bitter disappointment before delirious excitement turns up. That’s exactly what happened on 5 October, with Autumn Glow booked for knee chip surgery instead of lining up in the Flight S. G1
Never mind, said the Arrowfield & John Leaver-bred, Hermitage-owned & Chris Waller-trained LADY SHENANDOAH (Snitzel-Star Pupil), I’ll win the Flight! And so she did, by 3 lengths. And she was only warming up…
“What a filly and obviously I am very lucky to land on her…It was scintillating.”
– jockey Zac Lloyd after Lady Shenandoah’s Flight S. G1 win
Ohhhhh, October!
Fifty-nine Group & Listed Races were decided in Melbourne & Sydney during October’s Spring Carnival racing and Arrowfield stallions & graduates claimed 15 (25%) of them, including three coveted Group 1 prizes: Flight Stakes (LADY SHENANDOAH), Caulfield
Guineas (PRIVATE LIFE) & Spring Champion Stakes (EL CASTELLO).
The action was concentrated on two spectacular Saturdays, 19 & 26 October, at Caulfield, Randwick & The Valley which produced 11 of those 15 stakes successes, plus the $1 million Silver Eagle victory by graduate OSTRAKA.
One afternoon makes all the difference
Arrowfield Sales Manager Sally Gordon certainly won’t forget 26 October in a hurry. Enjoying the day at Royal Randwick, she celebrated The Valley Group winners RED ACES (by Dundeel), PROST, BITTERCREEK & BARAQIEL (all by Snitzel) & Castelvecchio’s daughter DOUBLE MARKET before cheering his son EL CASTELLO to victory in the Spring Champion S. G1. It was all the encouragement needed and Sally left the course with breeders clamouring for bookings to Castelvecchio!
“Wow. That was thrilling, I tell you…”
– jockey Josh Parr after El Castello’s Spring Champion S. G1 win
A Coolmore for Coolmore – courtesy of Arrowfield
Three Group 1-winning Arrowfield-bred-&-sold colts, CELESTIAL LEGEND, PRIVATE LIFE & SWITZERLAND begin their stud careers in 2025, hoping to emulate the success of Arrowfield graduates The Autumn Sun, Castelvecchio, Alabama Express, Super Seth & Tagaloa – all of whom put their stamp firmly on season 2024/25.
It has to be a good sign for Coolmore’s SWITZERLAND (Snitzel-Ms Bad Behavior), bred in partnership with Cloros Bloodstock, that only The Autumn Sun (with a figure of 126) in that group achieved a higher 3YO Timeform rating than the 125 he earned with a powerhouse performance in November’s VRC Coolmore Stud S. G1.
“He’s got an incredible turn of foot, and he can sustain it for a long time…he’s a beauty.”
– Switzerland’s jockey James McDonald
A magical March, everywhere…
Five majors lit up March for Arrowfield & Snitzel, as LADY SHENANDOAH completed her stellar season in the Surround S. G1 & Coolmore Classic G1, the Emirates Park filly MARHOONA gave Snitzel his third Golden Slipper G1 victory, Te Akau Racing’s 2YO colt RETURN TO CONQUER landed the Diamond S. G1 in New Zealand and Arrowfield graduate CAP FERRAT, brilliantly ridden by Craig Williams, scored a thrilling Hong Kong Derby LR win for owner Karen Lo Ki Yan & trainer Francis Lui.
…and an awesome April at Riverside
Yes, Arrowfield was proud to return to the #1 vendor spot at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, with all-time record average & top prices for the farm. More important though was the $563,000 average price (25% above the overall sale figure) achieved for the 63 yearlings by Snitzel, Maurice, Dundeel & The Autumn Sun – success that was shared with many other vendors and breeders. Bravo!
Kicking the million-dollar goal
There’s a special pleasure in fulfilling a long-term plan and that’s why Team Arrowfield and the Ladbrokes Racing Club were jumping for joy after KNOW THYSELF (bred in partnership with LNJ Foxwoods, by The Autumn Sun from Mantra Of Life) and champion country jockey Aaron Bullock unwound a big finish to land the $1 million Country Championship Final on Derby Day at Randwick.
Know Thyself went on to win twice more in the Autumn, including The Coast at Gosford, and take his earnings to $1.2 million. He remains in training for 2025/26.
“We put 12 months planning into this, and not often does it come off, but we always felt Know Thyself was the right sort of horse for this series…This means a lot to Leah (Gavranich, co-trainer) and our entire team at Arrowfield.”
– co-trainer Paul Messara after the Country Championship Final
A new star rises at Randwick
Star Thoroughbreds’ filly AELIANA (Castelvecchio-Temolie) capped Day 1 of The Championships with one of the season’s most dominant Group 1 performances, an imperious 5-length victory that drew comparisons with her grandsire Dundeel’s Derby romp in 2013.
“She was extraordinary. She left the barriers well, just travelled great from the outset and felt a winner a long way out.”
– Aeliana’s jockey Damien Lane
And another Derby-winning filly
Not to be out-done by his son, Dundeel reeled out his own Derby-winning filly, OTI Racing’s FEMMINILE, who triumphed in May’s South Australian Derby G1 and was subsequently sold for $1.5 million to Yulong Investments.
She headed a veritable battalion of warrior Dundeel daughters this season – 9 of his 17 stakes performers and 7 of his 10 stakeswinners were fillies & mares.
With warmest good wishes to all participants for plenty of fun, excitement and success in 2025/26!
