Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
The Autumn Sun’s 3-year-old gelding Autumn Mystery gave his sire a second group win in successive weeks when victorious in Saturday’s G3 Caulfield Classic over 2000 metres. Autumn Boy won the G1 Caulfield Guineas the week before becoming The Autumn Sun’s fifth Group 1 winner and remarkably his first male Group 1 winner.
“Wasn’t it a buy of the weekend? Buy of the year!” said Arrowfield Stud’s Jon Freyer.
“(The Autumn Sun) is absolutely flying isn’t he? Autumn Mystery winning yesterday was super impressive and he looks like a horse that’s going forward and the 2500 of the VRC Derby looks to be right up his alley.
“He was the horse out of that race that you’d think would improve the most, in terms of performance. There’s some nice 3-year-old colts around this year. Possibly even Autumn Boy might be there, but Autumn Mystery is going to be in it up to his ears.”
Jon Freyer | Image courtesy of Inglis
Autumn Mystery took his earnings over $250,000, a huge lift on the mere $15,000 spent to acquire him as a yearling by Nick Thompson. In 2024, The Autumn Sun’s yearlings averaged $186,000 across all sales, and this lifted in 2025 to $192,900.
“He was a good price. He’s not anymore, if you want to buy him,” joked Thompson. “He’s not actually for sale. It hasn’t really sunk in, the Group 3 win.”
On towards the G1 Victoria Derby
Trainer Rory Hunter was firm on the next step for Autumn Mystery. “As long as he pulls up over the next few days, the plan will be to push on to the Derby in two weeks time. He looks like he'll really run out the 2500 strongly, it’s an exciting couple of weeks ahead,” said Hunter.
Thompson, who has a close association with Hunter’s stable, is looking far beyond the Derby at a long term racing career for Autumn Mystery.
“If people watch the race, as we’ve watched it about 20,000 times already, you can see what he does and as Blake (Shinn) said, the horse did that, and it’s quite incredible, particularly when he saw the gap. Blake was going the other way, and the horse went back into the gap and that’s when you think you are going to have a handy horse,” said Thompson.
“He loves it down the straight at Flemington, we joke that next year the Cox Plate is at Flemington. You know, ha ha, it would be the ideal place to run the horse. It’s a joke because we might not even get to next week, let alone next year.”
Thompson might be circumspect about all the things that can go wrong with a horse, but his goals for Autumn Mystery are simple. “We wanted an out and out racehorse. Our biggest thrill, even forget the Derby, will be getting to race this horse when he’s eight or nine years old.”
“We wanted an out and out racehorse. Our biggest thrill, even forget the Derby, will be getting to race this horse (Autumn Mystery) when he’s eight or nine years old.” - Nick Thompson
A cyst was the issue behind the price reduction
The yearling market hunts out perfection and pays a premium on horses who have clean x-rays and scopes. Autumn Mystery was one of those who didn’t have clean x-rays.
“The owners of the horse purchased him themselves. He’s really turned into a bargain buy for them, that’s for sure,” said Hunter.
“He had a cyst on his hind leg, and some people might have been deterred by that, but other than that he was faultless. He was a beautiful looking horse as a yearling. I thought he would make a nicer 3-year-old, as he has now, but he showed us a lot of natural maturity as a 2-year-old. It’s put us in really good stead for today.”
Autumn Mystery | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Autumn Mystery debuted as a December juvenile, running third in both his first two starts. Hunter pushed him into stakes company and he ran sixth in the G3 Blue Diamond Prelude (c&g) and ninth of 15 in the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes.
Thompson concurs that temperament is the key. “He’s a calm horse, he pulled a bit in the race yesterday but hadn’t raced for four weeks. The bottom line is that he does everything we hoped. When you have a horse who is as calm as him, you’ve always got a chance,” said Thompson.
Back as a winter 2-year-old, he ran fifth behind Saturday’s G1 Thousand Guineas winner Ole Dancer (Ole Kirk) before heading into his 3-year-old season where he put together two seconds before winning the Derby Preview last start.
“Most of him was perfect (at the sales), but he had a stifle cyst. We figured we would know pretty quick if he was going to be a racehorse or not. We’d know it in pre-training, and we thought we’d roll the dice (at that price). But I think there were other factors at play to get him for that price,” said Thompson.
A mare with a poor record
It wasn’t just the cyst that dropped the price for Autumn Mystery. His dam, Stop Making Sense (Sebring) had only one minor winner, Written Sun (Written Tycoon), and two other unraced foals on her record before Autumn Mystery. Since the purchase, one of those two unraced foals is a winner, Sakura Hime (Invader), while the other is unplaced.
“It was the second day of the sale, and the second thing, it was Gilgai and they don’t usually put reserves on them. Also, for whatever reason, the horse was delivered to the sale late on the second day. The mare hadn’t done very much at all, and shortly after we bought him, Gilgai sold the mare on.”
Stop Making Sense | Image courtesy of Inglis
Gilgai Farm sold Stop Making Sense for $10,000 via an Inglis Digital Sale in April 2024, and she was purchased by Rosie Metherall.
“The size of him doesn’t come from The Autumn Sun him, we reckon it more comes from the mare. She’s related to I Wish I Win but it doesn’t mean much does it? It’s just the way things go. He’s a big fine strong animal. She had a couple of foals who were no good and that’s where we are.
“There are times when horses fall through the cracks, or they aren’t fashionable or whatever. We were lucky, very lucky.”
An element of luck to it
Thompson mentions luck, but it was Rory Hunter who dragged him to the ring to bid on Autumn Mystery.
“We saw him (at the sale) and had him vetted. I honestly took a first look at him and I said to Rory, This horse is six figures, thank you but I can’t afford that. He said, Just come up to the ring and see what’s what. Which is what we did. There was one offer for $5000, then $10,000, then we said $15,000 and bang, sold to Hunter. I looked at Rory and said, What have we done?
“It is a risk and (with the cyst) that horse might not have been able to run at all, and that would be that. Sometimes you just got to have a go with it. Rory has probably told you he’s a cracking horse. He’s a serious horse, who looks the part. Looks aren’t everything but it helps.
“We put him straight on the truck with John Ledger (to be educated). They are just amazing horse people, the whole family. When he walked off the truck, John turned to me and said, You’ve stolen that!”
Autumn Mystery as a yearling | Image courtesy of Inglis
At 10 per cent of the average price paid for a yearling by The Autumn Sun, and now with earnings far in excess of his purchase price, Ledger was certainly correct.
The most expensive horse yet for Thompson
“Before Thursday (Inglis Ready2Race Sale), he’s the most expensive horse I’ve purchased, my wife Denise and I,” Thompson said. “The first one we bought for Rory was a Toronado called It’s Tornado Storm. He was an 11-start maiden and we had five wins out of him.” It’s Tornado Storm (Toronado {Ire}) won five of his 35 starts and $248,000.
“We’ve had some good success with buying tried horses. The second horse we bought was Aragon, an ex Busuttin horse. We managed to get two wins out of him.” Aragon (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) was a maiden winner for the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young stable, before being on-sold for $13,000 at an Inglis Digital sale to Thompson. He went on to win twice more and earned around $80,000 for Thompson.
“The common denominator in this is Rory. It doesn’t matter what horse he takes, he conditions them. They might not be talented, but the horse has the best chance with him. We thought, I wonder what he (Rory) could do with an untried one. My hunch was right. He has the support from family and everyone around him. Its amazing, he deserves every part of it and he can pick a good horse. He knows what a good horse looks like. He knows what the condition of a horse is.
“It doesn’t matter what horse he takes, he (Rory Hunter) conditions them. They might not be talented, but the horse has the best chance with him.” - Nick Thompson
“One thing we want to get out of this is for Rory to get recognised and his profile to rise. We want him to get some more Autumn Mystery’s in the yard.”
The Autumn Sun’s temperament
Both Thompson and Hunter spoke to the good temperament of Autumn Mystery and Hunter felt that came from the sire.
“He’s so quiet to handle with a great nature and I think that’s what makes him a good racehorse too. He’s got that bit of aura about him. It’s a pattern with The Autumn Sun’s they seem to have that real kind nature. Sensible,” said Hunter.
“He’s a big athletic horse, probably 16 and a half hands and still has a bit more growing to do too. He’s not the fully furnished product yet. When he’s fully grown into himself, he’s going to be twice as good I think.
“We’ve actually got his half-brother as well, we just purchased him from the weanling sale. He’s by Yes Yes Yes and looks like he’ll be even bigger than his brother.” The 2024 colt by Yes Yes Yes from Stop Making Sense was sold by Blue Gum Farm at the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale to Thompson for $5000.
The Autumn Sun getting some colts
With four Group 1-winning fillies from his first two crops, The Autumn Sun was pegged by some as a sire of fillies, which might be another factor in the bargain price for Autumn Mystery. But things are changing with his 3-year-old colt Autumn Boy winning the G1 Caulfield Guineas last weekend for trainer Chris Waller, and now Autumn Mystery adds a Group 3 on Saturday.
“It’s not necessarily something we’ve focused on terribly much,” said Freyer. He picked out a few other colts and geldings by The Autumn Sun.
“Know Thyself, who we had a massive opinion of and ultimately won the Coast and the Country Championship, so he’s a horse that has won over $1 million in prizemoney. Matusalem is another horse we have an interest in who is a stakes winner. There’s plenty of nice (colts) around. It’s just that there’s been some exceptional fillies. Now you’ve got a couple of cracking colts as well, and people are not focusing on it as much.
“It's vindication of what we’ve thought all along.
“Over the journey, you see these stallions who (have a sex imbalance) when looking at small sample sizes and in the fullness of time, most stallions even up. Dundeel is another example as well.” Dundeel (NZ) is the opposite with eight colts or geldings among his nine Group 1 winners.
Dundeel (NZ) | Standing at Arrowfield Stud
“Yesterday (Dundeel) had first and third in the Angst Stakes and last year he had more filly stakes winners than Zoustar and I Am Invincible. It’s just one of those things over time that any disparity eventually evens up.
“It can set a reputation early but people who look into it more closely and don’t get carried away with it, well, that presents commercial opportunities. There’s plenty of people who bought (The Autumn Sun colts), for example the colt we sold at Easter last year for $100,000 went through the breeze up sale and made $575,000. In that three or four months, people realised there’s great value in those horses and some people made canny decisions and have done very well, and good luck to them.”
The 2-year-old colt out of Hole In Ten (Sebring) was originally sold by Arrowfield Stud at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale for $100,000 and bought by Ohukia Lodge, who on-sold him at last week’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale for $575,000 to trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
On missing a season
The Autumn Sun missed the 2024 breeding season after sustaining a pelvis injury in his paddock which means he has no foals on the ground this spring.
The Autumn Sun | Standing at Arrowfield
“It’s not ideal. Obviously there will be a dip in representation on the track but that’s while coming through. We have no foals on the ground, but there are foals this year, yearlings next year, 2-year-olds the year after. Really when we see the best of them as 3-year-olds down the track, he’ll have good numbers to represent him in the intervening years. With the propensity for them to train on, I think we’ll be able to cover that gap,” said Freyer.
“He’s come back bigger and stronger than ever, and he’s got some lovely horses around this year with Autumn Glow and some very nice 3-year-olds. (The missing season) isn’t something that concerns us.
“He’s doing super (this season). He’s having a great season. He’s been fully booked for a long time with a great book of mares and is getting through them particularly well.”
With a potential Derby winner in his future, The Autumn Sun’s star is on the rise.
