But ex-pat Kiwi trainer Waller says the defeat was because of his error.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m disappointed for the horse, as she gave everything in the race but I simply got her distance range wrong,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologise to everyone for that, we\u2019ll accept defeat graciously and come back better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutumn Glow has come through yesterday\u2019s run well, which is pleasing to see.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will now look ahead to next spring, where Autumn Glow can shine again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll speak with the owners, map out an exciting preparation and keep you updated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waller then went on to congratulate the connections of winner Sir Delius.<\/p>\n
Autumn Glow\u2019s defeat may have stung many punters and her bloodlines on her female side may suggest she is bred to be at her best between 1200-1600m, but who could blame Waller or her connections for stepping her up to 2000m?<\/p>\n
Not only had she been very strong to and through the line at 1600m but she was, after all, a $1.30 favourite to win an A$5m race on her back doorstep.<\/p>\n
Victory in the Queen Elizabeth II would have opened up races like the Cox Plate and the smorgasbord of rich 2000m weight-for-age races next season but she is now almost certain to not be set for the Cox Plate now, even though she is still the $7 fourth-favourite.<\/p>\n
There is a silver lining to her cloud of defeat though.<\/p>\n
Autumn Glow can head to the spelling paddock relieved of the burden of being unbeaten and the so-called \u201cNext Winx\u201d.<\/p>\n
Maximus the Great<\/p>\n
Irish steeplechaser I Am Maximus earned a place alongside the legend of the world\u2019s most famous jumping race with victory in the Grand National at Aintree on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Willie Mullins-trained jumper won the iconic race for the second time carrying a record 75.3kg.<\/p>\n
That makes I Am Maximus the first horse since Grand National legend Red Rum in 1977 to regain the National title, as I Am Maximus won it in 2024, lost his title when second last year and then regained it yesterday.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, Red Rum won the Grand National in 1973 and 1974 then finished second the next two years before regaining his title in 1977.<\/p>\n
That also sets I Am Maximus up to attempt to join Red Rum next year as the only other three-time winner of the Grand National.<\/p>\n
His win means Mullins, a regular visitor to this part of the world during the Melbourne spring carnival, has trained the last three Grand National winners.<\/p>\n
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But ex-pat Kiwi trainer Waller says the defeat was because of his error. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed for the horse,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,75132,53633,42055,4498,6028,3276,5506,97190,39197,1888,193208,6276,25139,14568,1362,60629,32892,1132,9878,111,139,69,8617,90,3366,3512,65037,8205,1534,213,2960,31145,49519,8489,49518],"class_list":{"0":"post-377369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-apologising","10":"tag-apology","11":"tag-autumn","12":"tag-beat","13":"tag-champion","14":"tag-chris","15":"tag-defeat","16":"tag-elizabeth","17":"tag-extraordinary","18":"tag-first","19":"tag-gesture","20":"tag-gets","21":"tag-glow","22":"tag-horse","23":"tag-made","24":"tag-mare","25":"tag-mick","26":"tag-million","27":"tag-monday","28":"tag-new-zealand","29":"tag-newzealand","30":"tag-nz","31":"tag-offers","32":"tag-on","33":"tag-queen","34":"tag-racing","35":"tag-randwick","36":"tag-rare","37":"tag-saturday","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-stakes","40":"tag-suffered","41":"tag-superstar","42":"tag-trainer","43":"tag-waller"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}