1/ Can The Autumn Sun be the best ever for Redoute's Choice? That's a question more people than me are asking following his utterly dominant four and a half length win in the Caulfield Guineas, a race won by his sire in 1999.
Redoute's Choice has an incredible honour roll of 160 stakes-winners and at the
top of that list are Miss Finland and Lankan Rupee, who both won five Group I
races and had earnings in excess of $4million. The Autumn Sun currently shares
equal third place with Samantha Miss, both of them having had three Group I
wins, although The Autumn Sun heads her by prizemoney.
It seems a reasonable expectation that The Autumn Sun can win more Group I races before he retires to Arrowfield Stud, so he may very well end his career as the very best horse ever sired by Redoute's Choice.
2/ Snitzel, Redzel and Everest - forevermore these three names will be intertwined and if the Everest one day does surpass the Melbourne Cup as Australia's greatest race then Redzel is our Archer.
It seems a reasonable expectation that The Autumn Sun can win more Group I races before he retires to Arrowfield Stud, so he may very well end his career as the very best horse ever sired by Redoute's Choice.
2/ Snitzel, Redzel and Everest - forevermore these three names will be intertwined and if the Everest one day does surpass the Melbourne Cup as Australia's greatest race then Redzel is our Archer.
This high stakes race has made a folk hero out of humble gelding Redzel and brought added fame and riches to his trainers Peter and Paul Snowden, jockey Kerrin McEvoy and his adoring team of Triple Crown owners.
The race has been the icing on the cake for his champion sire Snitzel, whose record progeny earnings last season ($29.2 million) will be in danger of eclipse this season as he not only had the winner Redzel, but also the runner up Trapeze Artist.
3/ Redzel might have won the Everest, but would he if Pierata was in the race? Pierro stallion Pierata was talked about as an Everest possibility after his first up win in the Group II ATC Missile Stakes, but when that scenario did not eventuate he found himself in the $500,000 ATC Sydney Stakes, a consolation sprint over 1200 metres, the same distance as The Everest.
Pierata won by two and three quarter lengths and his time of 1.10.82 seconds was significantly faster than Redzel ran (1.12.03 seconds) ran in winning the Everest which was the very next race. If Pierata returns in the Autumn and is trained purely as a sprinter, he might be a horse that can really shake up the sprinters division going forward and put himself even more so on the map as a serious stallion prospect.
4/ Did we see the unthinkable on Saturday at Caulfield, is Benbatl Winx's worst nightmare? For the past three seasons Winx has been untouchable in Australia with three Cox Plate wins proving her unprecedented superiority.
Last year she posted Cox Plate win number three beating Humidor by a long neck. Humidor finished third to the Godolphin raider Benbatl on Saturday some two and a half lengths back, so if you can see that form line carried into the Cox Plate, you've got to think Winx is in for a serious challenge from the blue army.
5/ The Boom is back! A first crop sire sensation last season, Spirit of Boom has been notably quiet since the start of this season but a brilliant debut win by Champagne Boom in the Listed MRC Inglis Debutant Stakes has him back in the spotlight.
His yearlings sold through the roof this year and are now in many of the best stables in the country. Spirit of Boom is busy covering a full book of mares at Eureka Stud at the increased fee of $55,000, so the success of Champagne Boom is a piece of news a lot of people are very glad to see.
Images Steve Hart and Grant Courtney.
