The Lansdown Park-sold colt becomes the most expensive yearling from the first crop of The Autumn Sun
Roger James is already dreaming of Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) victory with the high-priced The Autumn Sun (Redoute's Choice) colt that he bought on Wednesday's third day of this year's Karaka 2022 - Book 1 sale.
The leading New Zealand trainer went to NZ$900,000 for the colt from the More Than Ready (Southern Halo) mare Pristino, which makes him a half-brother to former New Zealand Filly of the Year, Dijon Bleu (Burgundy). The colt, who was the second top lot of the sale and the most expensive product to date from the first crop of Arrowfield Stud's The Autumn Sun, was offered by Lansdown Park as Lot 508.
Chris Waller bypassed the Cox Plate with The Autumn Sun after his Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) romp but James, who has enjoyed great success in Australia with the likes of Silent Achiever, Sixty Seconds and Giovana, left no doubt about the race he would like to set his colt for.
"It's a silly thing to say at this stage of his career but I've said for a number of years now, and I have won some nice races in Australia, but I'd love to win a Cox Plate before I retire and that's the sort of horse he probably is…that we think he is," James said.
James, who prepared Silent Achiever to finish third in the 2014 Cox Plate, said he started formulating a plan to secure the Landsdowne Park colt at the earliest point of the inspections stage.
"We've been working on him from the day we first clapped eyes on him," James, who trains his team in partnership with Robert Wellwood, said.
"I just could not pick a fault in him. I just think he oozed everything that any good horse I've had anything to do with had."
James's purchase was one of two big lots in the first half of Day 3 with Tony Fung paying NZ$850,000 for a colt by Savabeel (Zabeel) out of the O'Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare Relentless Desire, who is a half-sister to multiple Australian Group 1 winner Metal Bender (Danaginga) and a sister to the dam of Amarelinha (Savabeel). He was sold by Waikato Stud as Lot 528.
