Arrowfield’s cup overflows on Slipper day

Snitzel’s third Golden Slipper winner, the breath-taking return of Autumn Glow, a new Group winner for Dundeel and the closest of Rosehill Guineas G1 seconds by Castelvecchio’s daughter Aeliana.

That sums up Arrowfield’s marvellous 2025 Golden Slipper day Rosehill. As the Stud’s inspirational founder and Chairman John Messara put it, in Biblical mode, “Our cup runneth over.”

Snitzel’s 3rd Golden Slipper G1 winner
Emirates Park’s home-bred filly Marhoona only just made it into the field as No. 16 for the $5 million Golden Slipper S. 1200m G1, after a February debut win and a runner-up finish in the Reisling S. G2 on 8 March.

But she led her rivals home when it counted, responding with spirit under pressure, and aided by the cool judgment & impeccable navigation of international jockey Damien Lane, who landed his second Slipper winner after Kiamichi in 2019.

He said, “It really played out how we thought it might and she was great. She just was there to be beaten at the 100 metres and Wodeton got to us, she really stuck at it, so very brave.”

What a win by Marhoona in the G1 TAB Golden Slipper, proving dreams can come true!

She wins for @MFreedmanRacing and @LaneDamian! 👏@EmiratesPark | @aus_turf_club pic.twitter.com/EAq92UCjBf

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 22, 2025

Marhoona is the third Golden Slipper winner for Emirates Park and Snitzel has been a key factor in all their pedigrees as the sire of Arrowfield graduate Estijaab (2018 winner) and damsire of Mossfun (2014 winner).

Add the 2023 winner, the colt Shinzo, and Snitzel is the only sire of 3 Golden Slipper winners this century, a record equalled by Wilkes and bettered only by Danehill & Star Kingdom (5 Slipper winners each).

Snitzel’s career tally of Group 1 winners now stands at 23 (eight as 2YOs), with four of them, Lady Shenandoah (Flight & Surround Stakes, Coolmore Classic), Switzerland (Coolmore Stud Stakes), Return To Conquer (Sistema S. G1) & Marhoona successful at that level this season.

Marhoona is the sixth Slipper winner for her trainer Michael Freedman, who was part of the famous Freedman brothers team, and co-trainer with his brother Richard of the 2021 winner Stay Inside.

She is a half-sister to three stakeswinners, including Group 2 winner Hilal, all out of Salma (by Encosta de Lago), whose third dam Dancing Show counts 13 Group 1 winners among her descendants, including Snitzel’s legendary sire Redoute’s Choice and Schwarz, winner of the William Reid S. G1 20 minutes after Marhoona’s Golden Slipper victory.

Snitzel now heads Australia’s current 2YO Sires’ Premiership (a title he’s already won 4 times) with $3.7 million prizemoney, and is hot on the heels of Zoustar & Pride Of Dubai on the main Premiership, with progeny earnings of $17.2 million.

Marhoona is his 155th career stakeswinner and 60th juvenile stakeswinner. Sunday’s Hong Kong Derby winner, Arrowfield Inglis Easter graduate Cap Ferrat (ex C’Est Beau la Vie) takes Snitzel’s tally to 156 stakeswinners and completes an unforgettable weekend for a very, very special stallion and the farm so privileged to stand him.

The 4-time Champion Sire has 45 lots catalogued for next month’s Inglis Easter Sale, including 7 colts & 3 fillies offered by Arrowfield.

Autumn Glow triumphs in stakes return
The Autumn Sun’s glorious 3YO daughter Autumn Glow returned with an emphatic victory in the $200,000 ATC Darby Munro S. 1200m LR.

Unbeaten in three starts last Spring, including the Up and Coming S. G3 & Tea Rose S. G2, before a Summer spell enforced by successful knee surgery, Autumn Glow posted the fastest 1200-metre time of the day, 1:09.24 and covered the final 600 metres in 33.40. 

Autumn Glow is BACK! 🙌

She defends her unbeaten record to win the Listed Darby Munro Stakes with ease!@mcacajamez | @cwallerracing | @aus_turf_club pic.twitter.com/J71rmwtYZf

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) March 22, 2025

Her trainer Chris Waller said, “It was a great return. You are never quite sure until you put them under race pressure and it’s just like a game of footy, it doesn’t matter how well you are training or how your pre-season games are, you have to turn up race day.

“It was good to see her do that, and we asked her to do it. She didn’t get her own way.

“We put her in the race. She travelled into the straight with purpose and took a while to go through her gears but it was just great to see her strong that last 100 metres.”

Bred by Newhaven Park Stud from South African Champion Sprinter Via Africa, Autumn Glow is a three-quarter sister to Group 1 winner & sire In The Congo (by Snitzel), and was initially sold as a weanling for $600,000 to Silverdale Farm & Shrone Bloodstock at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.

She then topped the 2023 Inglis Easter Sale when secured for $1.8 million by Arrowfield & Hermitage Thoroughbreds.

The Autumn Sun, sire of 16 stakes performers, 6 of them stakeswinners including three Group 1 winners, has 13 lots on offer at Inglis Easter 2025, among them 6 colts and 4 fillies in Arrowfield’s draft.

New Group winner for Dundeel
Mare Of Mt Buller extended the excellent recent record of Dundeel’s daughters with a late-charge victory in the $250,000 Epona S. 1900m G3, becoming her sire’s 36th stakeswinner.

It was a welcome change of fortune for the 4YO mare who has raced creditably over the past 12 months, including a last-start Group 3 third, without adding to her three consecutive wins as a summer 3YO. 

She is the 5th female among Dundeel’s 8 stakeswinners this season, after Group-winning sprinter-milers Konasana & Jasmin Rouge and Listed winners Cinch & Deel Her In, and her career earnings are close to $450,000.

Mare Of Mt Buller was bred by Torryburn Stud & the late Alan Osburg and sold for $250,000 at Inglis Classic to Brae Sokolski’s YES Bloodstock, which races her with partners including Ozzie Kheir and the Balmerino Racing Partnership.

Her dam Aliberani (by Redoute’s Choice), a city-winning grand-daughter of AJC Oaks G1 winner and successful matron Savana City, has left two other Dundeel fillies: 3YO Alideel, in training with Mark Minervini, and an un-named 2YO, purchased for $150,000 as a Magic Millions Perth yearling by Chris Waller & Mulcaster Bloodstock.

Dundeel’s 10 lots at Inglis Easter 2025 include 4 colts & a filly presented by Arrowfield, and two of them, Lots 48 & 137 are also out of Redoute’s Choice mares.

Castelvecchio’s daughter is 2nd, Rosehill Guineas G1 
Star Thoroughbreds’ 3YO filly Aeliana (ex Temolie by Star Witness) burst through late in the $750,000 Rosehill Guineas 2000m G1 to cut Broadsiding’s winning margin to an official 0.03 length, but in fact, the thinnest whisker. 

That performance follows Aeliana’s Group 3 & Listed wins, plus her Thousand Guineas G1 2nd, Hobartville S. G2 3rd & Randwick Guineas G1 4th to take her earnings to $976,000 – a very healthy return on the $180,000 that Star bid for at Karaka Premier, where she was offered by co-breeder Rich Hill Stud.

One of Castelvecchio’s 4 Group winners this season, Aeliana has a few more engagements pencilled in on her Autumn dance card, including the Australian Derby G1 on Day 1 of The Championships, 5 April and Australian Oaks G1 on Day 2, 12 April.