This is the Season of the Sun
Autumn Glow fends off the determined challenges of Group 1 winners Aeliana (partly obscured), Gringotts, Ceolwulf & Idle Flyer to win the $1 million 7 Stakes G2, her 10th victory at Group level, and the 30th stakes win on The Autumn Sun's progeny record. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
Australia’s reigning Horse of the Year Autumn Glow faced a different kind of challenge in Saturday’s $1 million ATC 7 Stakes 1600m G2, but once again she met it with class, zest and pace, to land the 13th victory of her 14-start career in front of an appreciative 10,000-strong crowd at Royal Randwick.
All going well, Autumn Glow’s next assignment will be the $5 million King Charles III S. G1 over 1600m at Randwick on Everest day, 17 October.
SHE WINS AGAIN! Autumn Glow lifts down the straight to claim the G2 7 Stakes! 🌅@mcacajamez @cwallerracing pic.twitter.com/fqWn2May5Z
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) September 19, 2026
Autumn Glow is a big part of The Autumn Sun’s current wave of success, but she is by no means the whole story. She has supplied just over half of the $2.2 million prizemoney that gives him an early 3rd spot on the Australian General Sires’ Premiership, just behind I Am Invincible and his Arrowfield barn-mate Maurice.
Last season’s Champion 3YO Colt Autumn Boy has already added a Group 1 placing to his record and $900,000 earner Matusalem won the Wyong Cup LR earlier this month.
Livalittle, Changing Colours, Equinox Legend & Horizons have all notched up new season city wins. Talented mare Surfin’ Bird is set to resume in the Golden Pendant G2, Matusalem goes for the Big Dance, Autumn Boy & Group-placed Plymouth are nominated for the Epsom G1 and Group 1 performer After Summer & stakeswinner Private Legacy head to the Stocks S. G2. And 3YOs Autumn Lover, Autumn in Grinzing, Nikitria & Sunbliss all show promise and are entered in black type races.
The Autumn Sun also leads a group of young sires driving a generational shift among Australian-based commercial stallions. Champion Sires I Am Invincible & Written Tycoon and leading sire Street Boss remain prominent and active, but at 22 and 24 are near the end of their exceptional careers. Snitzel is rewriting the script for dead Champion Sires, but inevitably his numbers will diminish alongside those of So You Think, Fastnet Rock and the retired Exceed and Excel.
It’s now time for the stallions who began their stud careers in 2014 or later to step up and that is exactly what they are doing. Eleven of last season’s top 20 Australian sires by earnings are from that cohort. Zoustar has already won a Premiership and he’s joined in the current top 20 by The Autumn Sun, Maurice, Dundeel and seven other active sires standing in Australia likely to dominate the list over the next decade.
Which makes The Autumn Sun, one of the youngest members of this group and already sire of a world-ranked Horse of the Year, a Champion 3YO Colt and three other Group 1 winners, a very attractive proposition in 2026.
7 Stakes G2 Slideshow – PHOTOS: Bronwen Healy
