Walnut Farm secured the G1 Australian Oaks winner Autumn Angel (Aus) (The Autumn Sun {Aus}) for A$1.225 million (€762,599) in a boutique Inglis Digital Online Sale which concluded on Tuesday.
Trained by Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman, Autumn Angel won four of her 11 starts and earned over A$1.1 million in prize-money during her illustrious career, with her biggest success coming in April this year when she defeated high-class performers such as Zardozi (Aus) (Kingman {GB}) and Orchestral (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}) to win the Australian Oaks at Randwick.
Last week it was announced that Autumn Angel had suffered a tendon injury, bringing her racing career to a premature end. She was offered by Dalziel Bloodstock as a breeding prospect, with Walnut Farm beating multiple interested parties in the closing minutes of the online auction.
“Autumn Angel won an elite edition of the Australian Oaks,” said Vin Cox on behalf of the winning bidder. “She has a great pedigree and is by a stallion that is well on his way as a highly commercial stallion of the future.
“There are no plans as to her future at this early stage. We will get her home and into the system.”
Autumn Angel was purchased by Moody and managing owner Wylie Dalziel for A$230,000 at the 2022 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. She is one of four winners out of the Group 3 winner Angel Of Mercy (Aus) (Hussonet), who was also runner-up in the G1 Tattersalls Tiara.
“It's all happened very fast,” said Dalziel. “The ownership group are rapt with the result, although understandably we didn't envisage selling her so soon.
“This time last week we were disappointed and in shock when we received the news from the stable about her injury. But as the manager I had to move quickly and I must thank Sebastian [Hutch], James [Price] and the team at Inglis for facilitating such a quick turnaround.”
He added, “We've had a great run with Autumn Angel and we will never know what might have been on the racetrack. All the signs were there that the best was yet to come.
“There are nine owners including some long-time clients and they all were quick to back the decision to offer her as a breeding prospect and she was put in front of all the right people with Inglis Digital.”
“Wylie and his owners were obviously disappointed that Autumn Angel's racing career was brought to a premature end, but it's pleasing to have been able to help them find a sale solution in a short space of time,” said Inglis Digital's Nick Melmeth.
“We learnt of her injury less than a week ago, so to be where we are today, with multiple major breeding operations having competed to buy her for a seven figure sum, is a testament to the efficiency of the system.”
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