Top Kiwi trainer protects the most expensive son of the first season of the breed
Roger James dreamed of Cox Plate’s victory with the high-priced The Autumn Sun colt car he bought on the third Wednesday of this year’s Karaka Yearling sale.
New Zealand’s top trainer raked in $900,000 for mare from More Than Ready Pristino mare.
That purchase price made the colt the second-highest-priced consignment in this year’s Karaka sale and the most expensive to date of the early-season male The Autumn Sun.
Chris Waller ignored Cox Tấm sheet with The Autumn Sun after his Caulfield Guineas but James, who has enjoyed huge success in Australia with films such as Silent Achiever, Sixty Seconds and Giovana, has no doubt about the race he wants to set for his pony.
“It’s silly to say at this stage of my career but I’ve been saying it for years, and I’ve won some nice races in Australia, but I want to win a Cox Plate before I retire. and that’s what James said.
James, who prepared Silent Achiever for third place in Cox Plate 2014, said he started building a plan to secure Landsdowne Park colt at the earliest point of the test period.
“We’ve been working with him since the first day we clapped for him,” said James, who coaches his team in partnership with Robert Wellwood.
“I just couldn’t see the fault in him. I just think he revealed everything any good horse I’ve ever had. ”
James’ purchase was one of two large batches in the first half of Day 3 with Tony Fung paying $850,000 for a Savabeel pony from the mare O’Reilly Relentless Desire, who has a half-brother Australian Team 1 winner, Metal Bender and a sister with Amarelinha’s dam.
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