Victoria Derby 2016: Trainer James Cummings claims Iconic classic triumph
JAMES Cummings has secured his greatest success with Prized Icon a dominant winner in the Group 1 Victoria Derby at Flemington.
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AN emotional James Cummings said his Victoria Derby winner Prized Icon will forever be dear to his heart after the superbly bred colt saluted in the Group 1 classic, making him a fourth generation winner of the race.
In a race that has been about pedigree and breeding for more than 160 years, the Cummings family on Saturday added yet another amazing chapter, 68 years after winning the race for the first time.
Twenty-eight-year-old James Cummings, who started out in a partnership with his famous grandfather Bart, scored the biggest win of his training career when Prized Icon ($17) sailed past the favourite Sacred Elixir ($2.70) to win the three-year-old classic by two-and-a-half lengths. The unlucky Inference ($9.5) was in third place.
“He will be close to my heart for the rest of my life, as my first Derby winner,” Cummings said after the race.
“There is a 100 years of horse racing in the family and that knowledge gives us confidence.”
“He has been a model of consistency, this horse ... he just continued to show such strength and the miles and miles of Cummings training have kicked in and now he has kicked away to win a Derby really convincingly.”
The tradition started with Cummings’ great-grandfather Jim Cummings, who won the race with Comic Court in 1948, a horse that went on to win the Melbourne Cup two years later. His famous grandfather Bart, who died in August 2015, tasted success fives times in the race, with Dayana (1972), Taj Rossi (1973), Stormy Rex (1977), Bounty Hawk (1983) and Omnicorp (1987).
And his father, Anthony, who was on course on Saturday his own batch of horses, won the race four years ago with Fiveandahalfstar.
“I’m really proud, you just like to see your kids do well, and he is doing better than that,” Anthony Cummings said of his son.
Asked if James ever asked him for advice, he added: “he doesn’t need it ... he knows his horses.”
James Cummings has always been buoyed by the advice and grounding he had received since his earliest days.
“I get a lot of confidence from the fact that my great-grandfather starting training horses in 1911, so there is 100 years of horse racing in the family, and that knowledge gives us confidence,” James said.
Prized Icon blitzed the field. Love a dark horse! #winner #VictoriaDerby #DerbyDay #darkhorse pic.twitter.com/3DN78LIYuy
— FlemingtonRacecourse (@FlemingtonVRC) October 29, 2016
But he praised jockey Glyn Schofield, who was riding under a stay of proceedings, for not only his ride on Saturday, but for convincing him to push on yesterday, despite last week’s poor run in the Vase at Moonee Valley.
“This man gave me the confidence to back this horse up,” Cummings said of Schofield’s advice. “There were times when I doubted running him. But to win staying races, these horses need to be in their comfort zone and in their own space. It was chalk and cheese from what we saw of the horse last week.
PARTY TIME:
Schofield added: “He sort of caught me a bit by surprise at Moonee Valley when he didn’t show any turn of speed around those corners. I said to James ‘don’t worry, when he gets to the big open track (Flemington), he will show that turn of speed’, and he did,”
But Cummings said Prized Icon, bred at Gooree Stud by his wife’s grandfather, is unlikely to head towards next year’s Melbourne Cup, as he is too valuable a commodity as a dual Group 1 winning colt.
“I wouldn’t be talking about a Melbourne Cup with a Group 1-winning colt who is a son of More Than Ready out of a Danehill mare,” he said. “I might get into a bit of trouble there.”
“I actually thinking of setting him for the Doomben Cup (2000m) and giving him a good break. We won’t be in any rush with this horse. He is a valuable commodity.”
ANOTHER BOWMAN BANQUET IN MILE
HUGH Bowman scored his second Group 1 Derby Day victory when underrated Newcastle galloper Le Romain cruised to an easy victory in the Cantala Stakes (1600m).
Bowman had scored earlier in the day on Mick Price’s Flying Artie.
The form line from Sydney’s Epsom Handicap proved to a decisive ingredient in the race, with Le Romain and the second-placed Sydney horse McCreery both unplaced in the Group 1 race at their previous starts.
But they both finished less than two lengths from the winner, Hauraki.
Le Romain’s trainer Kris Lees said while he was underrated in some sections, he is certainly at his stables.
“We have always had a really good opinion of him,” Lees said.
“He was really great in the Epsom.”
Lees said Le Romain, which has only been unplaced in two of his 13 starts, had given the stable plenty of confidence that he would run well.
He said he was confident as the race unfolded that Bowman had plenty of horse underneath him.
“He really dragged him into the race,” Lees said.
“He said before the race that he wanted to becoming to them, and not them coming to him which is what happened in the Epsom. I knew he had a little bit in the tank and he was strong in the end.”
Lees said he wanted to get some longevity out of the four year-old by Hardspun and hoped he could remain at the Group level.
He agreed that the Melbourne Spring carnival had been good to him and he described it as the Olympics of racing.
“So you have to try to target these big races on the big stage and we were lucky we had the right horse,” Lees said.
Le Romain ($15) scored by a length from McCreery ($21) ridden by Craig Newitt, and trained by Chris Waller. Mike Moroney’s Tivaci ($41) finished third,
The gelding could join stablemate Lucia Valentina in the Group 1 Emirates Stakes (2000m) on the final day of the Flemington carnival.
Race favourite The United States ($6 equal favourite) finished fourth, but had no luck. He is also expected to also head to the Emirates Stakes and then possibly to Sha Tim for the Hong Kong Cup in December
With Daryl Timms
Originally published as Victoria Derby 2016: Trainer James Cummings claims Iconic classic triumph
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