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By Ray Hickson

“Something special” isn’t a description Chris Waller often uses post-race but that’s exactly how he saw it after Autumn Glow’s impressive debut win at Rosehill.

The $1.8 million sale topping filly, a half-sister to Golden Rose winner In The Congo, set herself on a Group 1 path as she kicked off her carrier in the Schweppes Handicap (1300m).

Waller said he’d like to think Autumn Glow has the makings of an ideal Flight Stakes horse and will likely point her in that direction.

“She’s on her way to bigger and better things,’’ Waller said.

“Everything she’s done has been very special, including her first trial, she trialled the other day and we didn’t ask her to do anything and she won that trial.

“I’ll look at how she pulls up, respecting it is her first preparation, some horses can cope better or worse and some might take the next step.

“We’d love to be able to get her to the Flight Stakes if we can, but only if we can.”

Waller had accepted with Autumn Glow for the midweek program at Kensington, where she would have started a short-priced favourite, but when there was rain around elected to wait for a firmer surface on her home track.

That was despite having to take on more experienced horses in a Benchmark 72 as opposed to a maiden.

An absolutuely glowing win on debut to Autumn Glow at Rosehill! 🤩@G1TySchil @cwallerracing pic.twitter.com/VANHE1rtD6

— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) August 17, 2024

“I just wanted her to have the best possible experience,’’ he said.

“It’s a good surface, lots of grass, and you need horses to have good experiences and she’s had that today.”

With Tyler Schiller on board, Autumn Glow settled behind a solid tempo set by Dawn Service and let down with a nice turn of foot running a last 600m of 34.53 (Punter’s Intelligence), over three lengths faster than anything else, and a last 200m of 11.70.

Schiller also threw out the ‘special’ word to describe the filly’s win, suggesting the experience will do her a world of good, and given she was so effective at 1300m first-up sees no reason why a mile won’t suit her.

“She’s pretty special. She jumped, travelled and did everything right,’’ Schiller said.

“She was just flowing in a lovely spot and there was no pressure which helped.

“She had too good a turn of foot for them. I didn’t have to ask for too much, I gave her one and she was too strong.”

The Group 1 Darley Flight Stakes (1600m) is run at Randwick on October 5.

All the results and replays from Saturday's Rosehill meeting