Rutherford reflects on his latest Group One breeding success
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • October 18th, 2025 8:00 AM • 5 min read
Richard Rutherford is very matter-of-fact as he discusses his North Canterbury farming and boutique thoroughbred breeding operation, but happily lets his guard down when it comes to his formative years.
The master of Beltana Stud enjoyed another highlight last weekend when Autumn Boy won the Gr.1 Caulfield Guineas, more than four decades after he had celebrated his first breeding success at the same venue when Affinity won the 1984 Caulfield Cup.
In between times – and also in Melbourne – the Rutherford-bred Shamexpress made the Group One grade in the 2013 Newmarket Handicap down the Flemington straight-six.
There’s a common thread in all three horses, tracing to Autumn Boy’s fourth dam, the Brigadier Gerard mare Geraniums Red, who made an early return on Rutherford’s bold investment by producing Affinity.
In due course Geraniums Red became the great granddam of Shamexpress, and now Autumn Boy has become her third Group One-winning descendant by emulating his sire The Autumn Sun in one of Australia’s most significant three-year-old races.
Autumn Boy is out of the unraced Savabeel mare Rosegarden, whose dam is the multiple stakes-winning O’Reilly Rose, by O’Reilly from Rose World, an unraced daughter of Grosvenor and Geraniums Red.
However, before Geraniums Red set about making such a defining statement for Beltana Stud, Rutherford was on a quite different tangent, as he revealed when RaceForm spoke with him earlier this week.
“I left school at 17 and decided I wanted to see some of the world, so I went and worked in Queensland and then I ended up in Sydney working for a bookmaker, Jack Ashley, who was also chairman of City Tatts.
“It was great fun; on racedays he had me decked out in all the flash gear – gaudy striped jacket and colourful tie – as we took bets in the ring, and then on Monday everyone turned up at Tatts when all the big punters settled their debts.
“It was the early 1970s and there were some great horses racing then. The mighty grey Gunsynd was one I especially remember and another was All Shot, who had come across from New Zealand and won them in a row.
“Racing has changed a lot since those days, but I suppose you’d have to say that what hasn’t is that a good horse will always be a good horse.”
Rutherford returned home to become the fifth-generation member to manage the 4,000-acre spread that has been in his family’s ownership since 1850. He shared with his mother Marie a passion for thoroughbred breeding, and together they decided to raise the stakes by investing in an English-bred mare.
“Earle Thomas, a family friend from Ra Ora Stud, suggested we look at upgrading our broodmares with something from England, so we made the plunge and bought Geraniums Red at auction for 25,000 guineas.
“Brigadier Gerard didn’t match his racetrack feats when he went to stud, but it was still good blood, the mare’s dam being an Irish Oaks winner tracing to Mumtaz Mahal’s dam Lady Josephine.
“I’ve always been a fan of the Aga Khan families and as it turns out I’ve had a lot of luck with them. That’s one of the reasons I was attracted to The Autumn Sun.”
The European bloodlines identified more than four decades ago have well and truly stood the test of time, something that Rutherford takes special pride in given his operation’s scale.
“We’ve never had more than a handful of mares, so it can be quite daunting when you’re up against those big conglomerates. Some of them have 200 mares or more to work with from one year to the next, but I wouldn’t have bred 200 horses in total over all these years.
“It’s always satisfying to breed a good horse when your aim is to farm well and as part of that to breed decent types.”
Beltana Stud has recently broken with tradition by not having its customary small yearling draft at Karaka, a scenario that Rutherford puts down to the Covid lockdown years.
“During Covid I made the decision to look to Australia with my mares, which has ended up with results like Autumn Boy. Also, I’ve got just the two mares now – his mother Rosegarden and Fast Summer Rock, who’s a half-sister by Fastnet Rock to Stefi Magnetica.”
Last month Rosegarden produced a filly by Hellbent that Rutherford describes as “magnificent” and has unsurprisingly returned to The Autumn Sun. On this side of the Tasman, the other half of the Beltana broodmare band, Fast Summer Rock, has produced a Super Seth filly and returns to him.
The newest headliner on the Waikato Stud roster also features as the sire of O’Reilly Rose’s last foal, a two-year-old filly that Rutherford holds high hopes for.
“We had to put O’Reilly Rose down in the autumn but she did the Super Seth filly magically – I would go so far as to say she’s the best foal she had and she might be the best filly I’ve bred.”
Even though Autumn Boy doesn’t carry the NZ suffix, his connections to this country are strengthened by his owner being Glenn Ritchie, the former owner of Richie’s Transport who, like Rutherford, is a South Islander.
“The funny thing is we’ve never met,” says the latter. “We have spoken on the phone and it’s great to see someone who’s prepared to stump up serious money have success.”
Autumn Boy’s trainer Chris Waller and his go-to bloodstock agent Guy Mulcaster went to A$200,000 to purchase Autumn Boy as a yearling and last January also claimed the sister to Orchestral for Ritchie at a Karaka filly record of $2.4 million.
Ritchie’s red and yellow chequered colours are also a familiar sight locally, mainly through Riccarton trainer Andrew Carston and the Karaka Millions 2YO-placed filly Miss Ziggy, who pushed her New Zealand 1000 Guineas claims at Ashburton last weekend when third in the Barneswood Farm Stakes.
Rutherford and his wife Dinny travelled to Sydney last month for Autumn Boy’s luckless Golden Rose bid, but he wasn’t complaining that last Saturday’s emphatic return to form was witnessed closer to home.
“It would have been nice to be there,” he said, “but I can stand it. Where he goes next will be interesting; there’s some talk of the Cox Plate, but I would be happy for them to wait on him.”
And while he takes none of the credit for the horse now known as Ka Ying Rising, Rutherford will be a keen observer when the Shamexpress gelding steps out at Randwick on Saturday as the odds-on favourite for The Everest.
“Not that I had anything to do with the breeding of him, but it’s still going to be very interesting. Shamexpress was electric down that straight at Flemington, so we’ll see if his son can do the same at Randwick.”
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