Cover image courtesy of Sportpix
Every start in a stallion prospect’s career is a chance to enhance his record. An important test for several stud prospects looms on Saturday in the G1 Randwick Guineas - a race won by the likes of Todman, Octagonal (NZ), and more recently, Dundeel (NZ) and The Autumn Sun.
The three Guineas races over a mile - the G1 Caulfield Guineas, the G1 Australian Guineas, and Randwick - are races that Arrowfield Stud’s John Messara knows well, and they feature prominently on his list of what attracts him to a would-be stallion’s resume.
The prime of their life
“In the modern era, I think we have gotten away a little bit from exclusively rating horses on their 2-year-old form,” said Messara. “And we're now rating them more on their form in top 3-year-old races. The Randwick Guineas is usually a very competitive affair, the Caulfield Guineas has always had an aura about it, and the Australian Guineas is a very testing Guineas.
“I have stood stallions that have won virtually all of them. I have got different ones now that have won different races, and I regard those Guineas races as probably where the best stallions in this country emerge. They are in the prime of their lives, and they're meeting all the other horses of their generation on level weights. Those races are good tests and a strong indication of quality in the winners.”
“Those (Guineas) races are good tests and a strong indication of quality in the winners.” - John Messara
The Arrowfield Stud roster has long been home to Guineas talent; The Autumn Sun collected both the Caulfield and Randwick Guineas before stretching to the 2000 metres of the G1 Rosehill Guineas, a race also won by Castelvecchio.
His father Dundeel captured both the Rosehill and Randwick Guineas, and produced the winner of the latter, Celestial Legend, in 2024 and is the grandsire of last year’s winner Linebacker (NZ) (Super Seth).
John Messara | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
The late Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt both cast a shadow over the Guineas races, the former siring Australian Guineas winners Shamus Award and Wandjina while the latter produced Caulfield winner Mighty Boss.
“The Guineas is then in the (stallion) package, and I always regard it as a significant race,” Messara said. “The races will be more highly rated one than the other depending on the competition in different years, and the Caulfield Guineas is the more established race of the three and it's the one that used to be the great guide. But certainly the Randwick Guineas now is very significant and has had some great winners in the past.”
"The Randwick Guineas now is very significant and has had some great winners in the past." - John Messara
The titan that was Redoute's
Longer still is the shadow cast by Caulfield Guineas victor Redoute’s Choice.
“It was in extraordinary circumstances, against Testa Rossa,” recalled Messara. “He was left back and then he fought back to win. It was a titanic battle. That was the race that persuaded me to go chase after him quickly.”
"That (Caulfield Guineas) was the race that persuaded me to go chase after him (Redoute's Choice) quickly." - John Messara
Redoute’s Choice prevailed a head over his old sparring partner Testa Rossa in the Guineas, in a race that also included the eventual influential sires Commands and Pins, as well as Align and Sudurka.
“It could have been yesterday,” is how clear the memory is to Messara. “The whole Redoute’s story is very alive in my mind because I set myself the task of buying into him and luckily I was able to persuade the owner Mr (Muzaffar Ali) Yaseen to sell us a half interest, and that has been a very significant thing in my life.
Redoute's Choice winning the 1999 G1 Caulfield Guineas | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“I remember at the time that I had two other Danehill line stallions, Danzero and Flying Spur, and people said to me, ‘fancy getting a third Danehill. How can you stand three Danehills?’ My answer was, ‘you can't have too much of a good thing’.”
"People said to me, ‘how can you stand three Danehills?’ My answer was, ‘you can't have too much of a good thing’." - John Messara
The colt went to the G1 Cox Plate for his next assignment, where he was fifth, but he rallied back in the spring to complete his record with a win in the G1 CF Orr Stakes.
“He was already a great horse before that, he had won a Blue Diamond and he had only had his first start a week before in a Listed race,” Messara said, referring to Redoute’s Choice’s winning debut in the Listed Veuve Clicquot Stakes. “That was extraordinary as well.”
Redoute's Choice | Image courtesy of Arrowfield Stud
Aside from his heir apparent, The Autumn Sun, Redoute’s Choice’s offspring include several G1 One Thousand Guineas winners and the late Miss Finland, who won both that and the Australian Guineas.
“The Australian Guineas is a little bit out of left field, but still a very good race at a top tip top racetrack,” said Messara. “And it really separates the good from the bad from the ugly.”
The heir apparent
Unlike with Redoute’s Choice, Messara did not wait to see the Caulfield Guineas play out in 2018 before purchasing 50% of The Autumn Sun, who had been bought as a yearling from Arrowfield’s own Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2017 for $700,000 by Hermitage Thoroughbreds and Chris Waller Racing. Seven days after the deal was made, he was vindicated by the colt’s victory at Caulfield.
From there, the path through the Randwick and Rosehill Guineas, via the G2 Hobartville Stakes where the colt was an easy victor, was simply logical to follow.
“He went to the Rosehill Guineas as his last start, and the 2000 metres was a bit of a stretch for him,” Messara said. “He got the 2000 metres, and he had to stretch for it, but he was so game, especially on a wet track which he didn’t appreciate.
"He was very game, The Autumn Sun, but he was also brilliant." - John Messara
“He was very game, The Autumn Sun, but he was also brilliant. You can have that brilliance, but you also need to be game under adverse circumstances, and he was one of those.”
The loss of Redoute’s Choice three days after The Autumn Sun’s Rosehill triumph called into question the desire to continue.
“Then our partner in the horse, Hermitage, said, ‘what are you going to do with all the mares that were going to go to Redoute’s Choice?’, and I said, ‘well, I haven't worked that out yet’,” Messara recalled. “And he said, ‘if we retired The Autumn Sun, would they go to him?’ I said, ‘well, most likely a lot of them will because it's the same sireline’. It was proposed then to retire him and I didn't argue about that.”
The Autumn Sun | Standing at Arrowfield Stud
Despite the way The Autumn Sun has stepped into his sire’s shoes in the season since, there is a hint of ‘what if’ about him still for Messara.
“Commercially speaking, it was a good idea, but subsequently the horse just physically developed so much in the year afterward that I sort of regretted that decision, because who knows what he could have done,” he said. “The world was his oyster. He had gotten the Rosehill Guineas so he would have gotten a Cox Plate, and he would have had great fun winning those 1400-1600-metre weight-for-age races in Sydney and Melbourne.”
"The world was his (The Autumn Sun's) oyster. He had gotten the Rosehill Guineas so he would have gotten a Cox Plate." John Messara
Memories in the making
The field of nine on Saturday has a significant Arrowfield flavour to it; Caulfield victor Autumn Boy (The Autumn Sun) will attempt to replicate his father’s feat of the mile double, while Arrowfield Stud part-owned Decorum (Snitzel), a full brother to G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes-winning stallion Switzerland, takes a leap into stakes grade at his fifth start.
Ninja (Farnan) and Dusty Bay (Sandbar) are by sire sons of Not A Single Doubt and Snitzel respectively, and Green Spaces (Street Boss {USA}) is out of Redoute’s Choice mare Outdoor.
Sheza Alibi (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}), the only filly attempting to defy the odds in a field of colts, is out of Sheza Gypsy (Shaft), whose sire is a son of Flying Spur.
Autumn Boy | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes,” Messara said of Autumn Boy, who was bought by The Autumn Sun’s trainer Waller and Guy Mulcaster for $200,000 out of Amarina Farm’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft.
“I think he might be fairly exceptional. He is already a Guineas winner, and he will be a double Guineas winner if he is successful on Saturday. He will have a real impact on The Autumn Sun’s figures, so I am keen to see him succeed.”
"I think he (Autumn Boy) might be fairly exceptional." - John Messara
Autumn Boy is certainly rated as the chief threat in the race, both by the punters and by the other trainers, with Joe Pride - trainer of G1 Spring Champion Stakes winner and fellow acceptor Attica (Lonhro) - admitting, “I think my boy will win, but I'm not going to take Chris' horse for granted because he is a good colt.”
Messara’s expectations are not so lofty for Decorum, but the colt wouldn’t be in the field just to make up the numbers.
Decorum | Image courtesy of Georgia Young Photography
“Switzerland was a pure sprinter, and very fast, and this colt is not showing the same signs,” he said. “We will see how he goes. Michael (Freedman) is confident he will get the distance, so we will see what happens as far as class is concerned. It takes a good horse to win that race.”
Michael Freedman, trainer of Decorum, is keen to see the colt stretch himself in stakes company after ticking the mile box last start.
"It's a stepping stone perhaps to something else over a bit further for him, but it gives us a look at him against some of the better quality horses," he told Racing & Sports on Thursday.
Michael Freedman | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
“If you have a horse that is healthy and well and can run the distance, you know you have to be in it to win it,” said Messara. “Conditions and the race shape can change, so you never know what can happen. We know he can run the distance.”
If either colt could strike on Saturday, it would add another Guineas to Messara’s memory bank.
"Those are the moments you savour as an owner or breeder." - John Messara
“I don't forget those great moments of my stallions,” he said. “Those are the moments you savour as an owner or breeder. I remember the conditions, those big days become imprinted upon you, if it is your life.”
And for one of the game’s most prolific breeders, life is what it is.
