The 13th year of The Championships promises to go out with a bang on Saturday thanks to an unbeaten star taking on the carnival’s flagship race.

Autumn Glow will be an odds-on favourite to extend her streak to 12 in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the $5 million showpiece of the ATC’s Championships. She’ll endure a new pain barrier stepping out to 2000 metres while taking on global superstar and previous winner Dubai Honour, but she is expected to win.

And if she does Autumn Glow will be the first horse to carry the same colours to victory as a different Queen Elizabeth winner since Rough Habit in 1992 followed the success of Our Poetic Prince – both trained by New Zealand’s John Wheeler – in 1989.

Autumn Glow’s colours are the famous black and yellow diamonds of Arrowfield Stud and its owner John Messara. They were worn by (It’s A) Dundeel in the inaugural running of the Queen Elizabeth in its current form as the headline race of The Championships

Dundeel, who Messara identified as a stallion prospect and bought a majority share of him in late 2013, won the lion’s share of the $4 million purse in the 2014 Queen Elizabeth, his final start before being retired to stud.

Messara’s faith in Dundeel has been vindicated with the stallion siring nine Group 1 winners, including Group 1-producing sire sons Castelvecchio (who also resides at Arrowfield) and Super Seth.

Success for Autumn Glow (a daughter of another Arrowfield stallion, The Autumn Sun) on Saturday could potentially lead to an exciting mating between their two Queen Elizabeth winners.

There’s three other majors up for grabs at Randwick on Saturday. The Sydney Cup hasn’t been won by an Australian-bred since 2012. Machine Gun Gracie, Litzdeel and Piggyback all have solid claims to end the drought.

Victorian-trained fillies had won just three of 22 Australian Oaks’ before nabbing three of the past four. The Dom Sutton-trained After Summer and Classic Gem fly the Victorian flag this year.

And the Queen of the Turf is quickly becoming a Chris Waller benefit for his good mares. Lady Shenandoah and Lazzura look top hopes of giving him his fourth successive win in the race.