Scone preview: Trainer Edward Cummings feels Sunline relative Boom Smash Opera is on song for a turn around in form
Edward Cummings is forecasting the best result to date is in store for his Sunline relation Boom Smash Opera as he steps up in distance at Scone.
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Triple Group 1-winning trainer Edward Cummings says now could be the time for Sunline’s contemporary relation Boom Crash Opera to take centre stage after two underwhelming performances to begin his career.
The son of 2018 Manikato and Futurity Stakes winner Brave Smash heads to Scone aiming to improve - dramatically - on his Kensington debut and subsequent Wyong run where he managed to beat just one other home each time.
“They are two delete runs,” Cummings said.
“First-up was not where we wanted to go but we just kept getting cancelled and then he got smashed by his stablemate at Wyong.
“He’s just lacked a bit of pace and he has been a bit unlucky and has had bad draws.”
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Clear Proof at any old price! 🤯
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) July 17, 2024
That's $126 TAB Fixed Odds... to be precise! @JTRacingRwik and @SchofieldChad with a surprise win in the second at Randwick Kensington. pic.twitter.com/aKSzlWtAX7
Boom Smash Opera’s debut in town was over 1100m in a race won by recent Rosebud runner-up (to Gatsby) in Clear Proof.
He then stepped up to 1300m at Wyong but ‘finally’ gets to a more suitable 1600m this time on a more spacious track.
“He can definitely improve out to the mile, I think that’s what he wants,” Cummings said.
“It could be a sharp turnaround depending on how things pan out.
“If he ends up running well, everyone will be saying he is obviously a miler, and you go back through the preparation that we have given him, it has been a perfect sequence of runs at those lesser trips to get him there.”
Boom Smash Opera is ideally equipped to run 1600m (and further) given his grandam is a Galileo half-sister to the three-time Cox Plate winner, Sunline.
Cummings will have a second runner on the day whom the grandson of Cups King Bart Cummings says will run two miles if and when the time comes.
The horse’s name is King Mythos.
A son of Godolphin’s Queensland carnival hero Impending, King Mythos’s dam Ruby Ninetail’s shed her maiden status over 2100m.
His grandam, Whipping, is a half-sister to Zipping, who contested three Melbourne Cups, finishing fourth each time.
On top of that, King Mythos stems from the same family that boasts Coolmore’s Montjeu son Scorpion who won the 3000m Grand Prix de Paris and 2800m GB St Leger in 2005.
“King Mythos definitely looks like a potential two miler for us,” Cummings said.
“I would have loved to have given him a start by now but he just needed a bit of time and he just lacked a bit of ‘smarts’.”
King Mythos, an $80,000 Magic Millions Yearling sale purchase, has trialled five times at four different venues dating back to June last year.
“He is doing everything right,” the Australian Cup, Tancred Stakes and Queensland Oaks winning trainer said.
“He has just been ridden a little but too close too soon in some of those early trials and then with Winona (Costin) there at his last one early this month, we just wanted to ride him nice and quiet. Let him find the line with a pair of blinkers on.
“He’ll wear blinkers and be ridden the same way of Friday.”
King Mythos makes his debut, with Costin aboard, in the Inglis Maiden Handicap (1300m).
The race is one of 50 Maidens that carries a $100,000 bonus to the winner provided the horse is an Inglis graduate from 2023 and beyond and paid up for the Inglis Race Series.
GATTY’S BARGAIN BUYS ARE SET TO MAKE A STATEMENT AT MORUYA
Michael Gatty aims to win $39,900 with three horses originally valued at $655,000 that he paid a total of $23,500 when they line up on his home track.
The trio of Commandoro, Selhurst Park and Peruno, were all born and raised at Gerry Harvey’s Baramul Stud.
Commandoro was sold as a yearling for $250,000 and subsequently bought online by Gatty for $10,000, Selhurst Park made $325,000 in 2020 only to be secured online in 2023 for $7,000 while Peruno was an $80,000 ‘baby’ who cost Gatty just $6,500 at Inglis’ April 2023 Online auction.
First out of the blocks is Commandoro who apart from being a son of I Am Invincible is the ‘nephew’ of dual Group 1 winner, Lotteria.
Selhurst Park FLIES home! ✈ï¸
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A huge first up performance for the new stable, down the outside at double figures. pic.twitter.com/I0xdGfWHpR
The gelding has his first run under the new management in the The Dock Kingston Maiden Plate (920m).
“I spoke a few times with David Vandyke who had him before and he really liked the horse,” Gatty said.
“He is a very stocky, solid type of horse.
“I haven’t jumped him out or trialled him he has done some pair-work. We’ll know a lot more about him after the run.”
Selhurst Park, meanwhile, looks ready and able to enhance his already impressive stats at his home track in what shapes as a suitably fast-run race for the relative of Naturalism.
“You can’t bustle him and he doesn’t like it up inside horses,” Gatty explained.
“You’ve got only one crack at them but I’ll just leave it up to Amy (McLucas).
“She will know there is a fast lane down the outside there, so she will find a spot.
“If she can get him a couple of lengths closer and he’s happy, that’s good too.”
Gatty and McLucas will combine for a third time on the day when Peruno steps out in the Adelaide Hotel Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap (1310m).
“He came to us from Ciaron Maher,” Gatty said.
“He was just an immature Pierro and we have been happy with him.
“His last run was very good.
“I think he just hit a little bit of a flat-spot and had a bit of a float but Amy got stuck into him and he got his second wind.
“He is cherry ripe for Friday.”
The son of 2018 Manikato and Futurity Stakes winner Brave Smash heads to Scone aiming to improve - dramatically - on his Kensington debut and subsequent Wyong run where he managed to beat just one other home each time.
“They are two delete runs,” Cummings told The Daily Telegraph.
“First-up was not where we wanted to go but we just kept getting cancelled and then he got smashed by his stablemate at Wyong.
“He’s just lacked a bit of pace and he has been a bit unlucky and has had bad draws.”
Boom Smash Opera’s debut in town was over 1100m in a race won by recent Rosebud runner-up (to Gatsby) in Clear Proof.
He then stepped up to 1300m at Wyong but ‘finally’ gets to a more suitable 1600m this time on a more spacious track.
“He can definitely improve out to the mile, I think that’s what he wants,” Cummings said.
“It could be a sharp turnaround depending on how things pan out.
“If he ends up running well, everyone will be saying he is obviously a miler, and you go back through the preparation that we have given him, it has been a perfect sequence of runs at those lesser trips to get him there.”
Boom Smash Opera is ideally equipped to run 1600m (and further) given his grandam is a Galileo half-sister to the three-time Cox Plate winner, Sunline.
Cummings will have a second runner on the day whom the grandson of Cups King Bart Cummings says will run two miles if and when the time comes.
The horse’s name is King Mythos.
A son of Godolphin’s Queensland carnival hero Impending, King Mythos’s dam Ruby Ninetail’s shed her maiden status over 2100m.
His grandam, Whipping, is a half-sister to Zipping, who contested three Melbourne Cups, finishing fourth each time.
On top of that, King Mythos stems from the same family that boasts Coolmore’s Montjeu son Scorpion who won the 3000m Grand Prix de Paris and 2800m GB St Leger in 2005.
“King Mythos definitely looks like a potential two miler for us,” Cummings said.
“I would have loved to have given him a start by now but he just needed a bit of time and he just lacked a bit of ‘smarts’.”
King Mythos, an $80,000 Magic Millions Yearling sale purchase, has trialled five times at four different venues dating back to June last year.
“He is doing everything right,” the Australian Cup, Tancred Stakes and Queensland Oaks winning trainer said.
“He has just been ridden a little but too close too soon in some of those early trials and then with Winona (Costin) there at his last one early this month, we just wanted to ride him nice and quiet. Let him find the line with a pair of blinkers on.
“He’ll wear blinkers and be ridden the same way of Friday.”
King Mythos makes his debut, with Costin aboard, in the Inglis Maiden Handicap (1300m).
The race is one of 50 Maidens that carries a $100,000 bonus to the winner provided the horse is an Inglis graduate from 2023 and beyond and paid up for the Inglis Race Series.
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