Sir Delius stuns Autumn Glow in Queen Elizabeth Stakes upset

Sir Delius timed his run to perfection at Royal Randwick, unleashing a late surge under Craig Williams to beat Autumn Glow and land the $5 million Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000m. The Frankel entire, prepared by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, won by 2¼ lengths in 2:00.59 on a Good (4) track, with Lindermann at $31 ($30-1) grabbing second and Autumn Glow, the $1.30 favourite, back in third.

The result shattered Autumn Glow’s 11-race winning streak and gave the Chris Waller mare her first defeat. James McDonald said she is “a champion miler” and that she “felt the pinch” late after stepping to 2000m, a distance that asked a different question of her than the shorter trips that had carried her through the autumn. She had looked the likely winner approaching the top of the straight, but the final 200 metres told a harsher story as Lindermann, carrying 59kg like Sir Delius, ran past her for second and the favourite faded to be a further half neck away.

Williams gave Sir Delius a patient, on-pace ride, tracking the leaders before producing his challenge at the right moment. The five-year-old, also carrying 59kg, covered the last 600m in 36.33 seconds and kept finding through the final furlong to stamp himself as a genuine staying middle-distance horse. It was his third Group 1 win and a strong statement against a field that also included Dubai Honour in fourth, Light Infantry Man fifth, Wootton Verni sixth and Caviar Heights seventh.

For Bott, the victory was the campaign target all along. “We kept focus and this was the goal that we really wanted to be able to achieve,” he said. He added, “This is the one that counted,” and praised Williams, saying “today was the right set-up and Craig executed it perfectly.” Bott also pointed to Sir Delius being “a little bit negative last start” when third in the Ranvet Stakes, saying the team adjusted the approach for the Queen Elizabeth.

The win carried extra weight for the stable after Sir Delius’s spring campaign was cut short when he missed major targets following a failed pre-race scanning process. It also added another chapter to Williams’s own Randwick history: he had ridden Criterion, another Sir Owen Glenn-owned runner, to win the same race in 2015, and Glenn wanted him aboard Sir Delius as well. With Autumn Glow still elite but now facing fresh questions about her ideal trip, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes reshaped the autumn picture for Australia’s best middle-distance horses.