Buck Stops With Ed For Cups Campaign

It seems that everything is the way it’s meant to be when the current favourite for the Melbourne Cup is trained by a Cummings.

After the release of the nominations for the Cup last Tuesday, it’s Edward Cummings’ mare Duais who is the joint favourite for the race at $15 with Sportsbet, sharing favouritism with last year’s third placegetter, Spanish Mission.

Edward, son of multiple group one winning trainer Anthony Cummings and grandson of the ‘Cups King’ Bart Cummings, is out to give his family a fourteenth win in the race that stops the nation, should Duais salute on the first Tuesday in November.

So, what family lessons can the Hawkesbury based Cummings apply in his training of Duais for the upcoming spring?

“I suppose it’s just a matter of working through each start, each day and each week according to what we think suits her,” Cummings said.

“I’ve been taught by those people, by those members of the family, but ultimately the only man that is in charge or is going to bear the brunt of responsibility, is me, and it just comes down to doing the right thing on the right day and hopefully, that’s good enough.”

So far, it has been good enough for Cummings and Duais.

The daughter of Shamus Award has been a special horse for her trainer, as she gave Cummings his first G1 victory in his own right when she took out the 2021 Queensland Oaks, before adding to that tally in the autumn this year with her wins in the Australian Cup and Tancred Stakes.

Duais ramped up her preparation for the spring with a barrier trial at Warwick Farm on Friday, where she finished seventh behind reigning Caulfield Guineas winner Anamoe in a heat over 1000m.

The now five-year-old mare is expected to have her first start for the campaign in the G1 Winx Stakes at Randwick on August 20.

Sportsbet has Duais at $12 in its market for the 1400m contest in less than a fortnight’s time.

– racing.com

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