James Cummings was on the front of the Turnbull Stakes Day racebook on Sunday, but his grandfather was everywhere else. A tone has been set for the first spring carnival AB: After Bart.
Precedence, the last of Bart's 89 Melbourne Cup runners and the first in partnership with grandson James, was chasing automatic entry into this year's big one in the first running of The Bart Cummings since the legend's passing five weeks ago. A grand old boy of 10, Precedence finished sixth, as he had in last year's Cup.
The early pass into the 2015 Cup went to Let's Make Adeal, trained by Nigel Blackiston, who spent "seven lovely years" as stable foreman for Cummings. "To win this race after the passing of the great man is a great thrill," Blackiston said.
Let's Make Adeal is the grand-daughter of Let's Elope, who in 1991 won Cummings' ninth Melbourne Cup in a stellar spring that produced his third Caulfield-Melbourne Cups double. Blackiston last had a Cup runner in 2008 with Littorio, who finished 13th behind the last of Cummings' dozen winners, Viewed.
Blake Shinn rode Viewed that day, and on Sunday he wore the black and white checks and yellow sleeves again aboard Precedence. "That was a very good sixth from an impossible position," James Cummings noted.
Pre-race, he schooled Shinn in having "gentle but firm" hands. A Bart maxim? "One of his many."
The Turnbull was won impressively by Preferment, and under interrogation about his path towards the first Tuesday in November, trainer Chris Waller rued that he could no longer ask Bart what to do next, as he'd done so often in the past. Short of investing in a ouija board, he'll have to settle for trying to think like Bart instead.
"It's one of the things that gives me great confidence every time I saddle up a horse and every time I sit down to do a gallop sheet - that my grandfather was not just the trainer of 268 group one winners, he was the trainer and educator for some of the greatest trainers we have in the country," James Cummings said. "Horsemen who've been able to win big races, who've admitted themselves that they owe a lot of their success to my grandfather.
"It makes me better, that makes me more confident, makes me realise I can back the teachings he gave me. And so here I am, aged 27, trying to take on the big guns at Flemington on Turnbull Stakes day."
Asked what he wished for out of a spring that will be more celebratory than sombre, James Cummings shot for the stars. "A fairytale ending, that's what I hope for." Such is racing's allure, there are many from less celebrated stock doing the same.
Cranbourne trainer Shawn Mathrick is a mulleted, beanbag of a man with a straight delivery and an eye for a horse. When he saw Ayers Rock at the yearling sales he thought it might make $60,000, but knew he'd pay $300,000 if he had to. "I told my wife, 'You're in trouble here.'"
He ended up paying $130,000, and after winning his maiden at Mildura in August on a five-day turnaround from a trek to Sydney, he told anyone who'd listen that he'd win the VRC Derby. Leading from go to whoa out of barrier one to win the UCI Stakes on Sunday didn't change his mind.
On board was the veteran frontrunning specialist, Darren Gauci, who was challenged at the turn but just kept going. Gauci turns 50 on Boxing Day, and after dismounting had to be reminded where the mounting yard scales were. "I haven't had many rides in town lately," he admitted.
His last Derby ride was supposed to be on Arena in 1998. The horse won with Larry Cassidy in the saddle; Gauci watched from hospital with a broken leg.
He reckons he does more homework and "hard yards" than ever, that you don't lose your ability as a jockey, and he certainly hasn't lost his drive. Mathrick will have him any day. "The old bloke will stay on him," he said of the Gauci-Ayers Rock partnership. "He's gunna win the Derby on him!"
Meanwhile, James Cummings will take heart that in Precedence he saw the run of a horse returning to winning form, and that a fifth Melbourne Cup start is not beyond him. "Could it happen? It's the sport of kings here, and it's like a kingdom here at Flemington, this is where all the magic happens. Hopefully a little bit washes over me."
