Hermitage taken with Madame after success with Snitzel’s Group 1 Lady

Hermitage’s star mare Autumn Glow made a low-key return in a Sydney barrier as trainer Chris Waller prepares her for an autumn campaign where her unbeaten record will go on the line.

Up on the Gold Coast a few hours later, Autumn Glow’s owners Hermitage Thoroughbreds Eugene Chuang and Arrowfield’s John Messara were again doing business as buyer and seller at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale.

Co-owners of The Autumn Sun, the sire of Autumn Glow, who is chief among Arrowfield’s roster of stallions, Chuang furthered his fruitful relationship with Messara by paying $1.6 million for a Snitzel three-quarter sister to stakes winners Anders and Ostraka.

By the same sire as Hermitage’s Group 1-winning mare Lady Shenandoah, who also returned at the Randwick trial session on Thursday, the million-dollar daughter of blue hen mare Madame Andree was sold through Arrowfield’s Gold Coast draft.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch handled the bidding on behalf of the Hermitage principal before handing signing up duties to Chuang’s racing and bloodstock manager Shannon Clarke, who was ringside at Bundall.

The acquisition of the Snitzel filly continues Hermitage’s growing Australian presence, with Chuang signing for six two-year-olds at Inglis’ Ready2Race Sale in Sydney last October, two days prior to Lady Shenandoah running seventh in The Everest.

And it was Lady Shenadoah who was front of mind during the bidding process of Lot 504 at the Gold Coast, having bought a Home Affairs filly named Athenara $380,000 at last year’s Magic Millions sale.

“That ($1.6 million price) was where we were going to sit and my heart was pounding at that point. I’m happy that we were able to secure her,” Clarke said.

“We have a lot of luck with Arrowfield-bred horses, sold horses. It’s a great partnership that we have and long may it continue.” 

Clarke said the similarities between the Snitzel fillies were hard to ignore.

“They’re both very athletic fillies. They just have an athletic physique. They showed that early on at their parades,” she said.

“They have nice leg on them; they’re good movers.”

With Autumn Glow and Lady Shenandoah leading Hermitage’s racing division, Hermitage’s bloodstock portfolio has increased to beyond 100, of which about half is made up of racehorses.

Clarke said: “We’ve always had a small team, but in the past few years we’ve really built the stable.” 

Hermitage also races horses in New Zealand with Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott.

Pressed about the post-trial reports from Waller about Autumn Glow and Lady Shenandoah, who finished fifth and fourth respectively in their 850-metre Kensington course proper hit-outs, Clarke said jockey James McDonald’s soft handling of the pair went to script. 

“It was always going to be a quiet trial. I think she jumped out very positively,” Clarke said of Autumn Glow.

“She was moving well, and she just did exactly what Chris wanted her to do.”

As for Lady Shenandoah, an autumn plan was yet to be confirmed.

“What Chris’s plan is at the minute, he hasn’t disclosed at this point. But she looked ready to explode this morning in her trial, and she’s come back bigger and stronger, and it’s a very exciting autumn, hopefully,” Clarke said.

“(In the spring) she was very unlucky. She never disgraced herself in any run that she had, just a few things went wrong in those four starts, but it didn’t knock her confidence.”