The training maestro is grooming another champion. The genius, Bart Cummings, and the grandson James are now training in partnership.
The aged and the youthful are eyeing off a minor-major at Rosehill on Saturday to cap a worthwhile start to the month long partnership.
The unbeaten Eurozone goes round in the Run To The Rose while punters should not under-estimate Aliyana in the second. The lightly raced mare was the partnership’s first raceday winner.
“He [James] is not too bad at all,” the grandfather said on Friday.
“He has got a future, James seems to be learning fast, doing a good job and people seem to accept him in a reasonable way.
“The staff respect him, no problems there, he has good manners, treats people with respect.”
As for Eurozone, who is out of the recently departed Northern Meteor, Cummings knows only too well the best is yet to come.
“I was hoping he could make the grade,” Cummings said.
“He is going the right way, as long as he keeps doing what he is doing.
“We’re hoping for the best, time will tell.”
And Eurozone’s food intake is just what Cummings is looking for in a thoroughbred.
“He doesn’t leave a feed, he is a good doer,” Cummings said. “James makes sure they are being fed right, he is on the job.”
When racehorses do well at dinner time Cummings will tell you “they can be worked” and the great man adds “how you want them worked”.
Eurozone burst out of the barriers in the Rosebud last time round and jockey Hugh Bowman had no hesitation in dictating from the front.
Rather a rarity for a Cummings horse.
“I’d like to see him settle a bit better,” Cummings said.
“He doesn’t pull in trackwork, he settles well. He did let him stride last start and it didn’t hurt him.”
As for the five-year-old Aliyana Cummings is hoping for a change of luck for a horse that is “doing well” in the stable.
The mare didn’t have much luck when ridden by Peter Robl last time round but the Hall Of Fame trainer is sticking solid with the jockey.
“He just has to ride her the right way,” Cummings quipped.
“Get off the fence at the right time and give her a clear passage.
“That’s what we are all looking for, owners, jockeys, the punters, I don’t know why jockeys can’t do it more often?
“It looks quite simple to me, not sure why it isn’t done more on raceday.”
By Craig Young
