Leading trainer Chris Waller has put Autumn Glow in the same company as the legendary Winx after a hard-fought win in the $3 million Champions Mile.
The four-year-old mare, ridden by James McDonald, scored her sixth Group 1 victory and first win at Flemington in the 1600m feature on Saturday.
She has now won all but one of her 16 starts but was made to work as stablemate Lindermann ($16) took up the fight down the straight.
McDonald said the star miler got a little "lost at sea" while running in the Melbourne direction for the first time.
"Even when I straightened and gave her a click, she took about 50m to get going," he said.
"But boy once she opened the shoulders up, she was never going to get rolled.
"She's just a brilliant specimen."
It was the third Group 1 win of the carnival for the Waller and McDonald partnership.
Despite completing a trifecta with Buckaroo ($15) in third, a nervy Waller was breathing a sigh of relief.
"You just don't want to a horse like Autumn Glow to disappoint, and it's a massive crowd here," he said.
"It was good to see her going through her paces."
The Sydney trainer saddled wonder mare Winx across her 33-race winning streak and said Autumn Glow was good enough to beat her.
"She's as good as any horse I've trained," Waller said of Autumn Glow.
"It's just longevity, like Winx just kept going and going and going for four or five years. That's the only difference.
"She could beat Winx on her day and Winx could probably beat her up on Winx's best day pretty easy, in fact, especially over 2000m."
Earlier, Point Barrow upset Australia's best sprinters to take out the first feature race on Stakes Day at Flemington.
The four-year-old ($19) upstaged Everest star Tempted and five-time Group 1 winner Joliestar to claim the $3 million Champions Sprint.
Mark Zahra steered the Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained mare to her first Group 1 win, beating Plaintiff and Sky Bird in a blanket finish.
"I had good confidence coming into the race, albeit with Tempted obviously in the field," Sam Freedman said.
"But she's been a bloody good mare for a while and it's been a long time coming, so I'm glad she's got the win at the top level."
It was the third time Zahra has won the sprint race after previous triumphs with Giga Kick in 2025 and Santa Ana Lane in 2018.
The star jockey said he didn't like the ground out wide so went back to the inside after following Tempted, who ended Hong Kong star Ka Ying Rising's 21-race winning streak in the Everest.
"She's got such a good turn of foot I was able to just part the seas," Zahra said.
"She was in for a fight late, they were all coming at each other and she dug in.
"I always say the fresh horse on the scene that hasn't been to the Everest, they're always the ones to beat, and she got the chips."
