Francesca Cumani brings her best form to Network Ten for Melbourne Cup coverage
Francesca Cumani is joining 10s Melbourne Cup coverage from her rural retreat in England this year and thinks she’s tipped a winner.
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The explosion of puppy purchases during the global pandemic has been a welcome distraction for their owners and social media feeds, flooded with shots of the new furry friends.
For Francesca Cumani, the menagerie she’s accumulated during lockdown at her Suffolk “funny farm” is both a happy new addition to her family and hard work to juggle with her racing TV commitments.
The wildly-popular presenter, who will join 10’s Melbourne Cup coverage from her rural retreat in East Anglia, England, has been kept busy during the UK lockdown – both with her role on UK network, ITV and wrangling the many mouths she now has to feed.
“We’ve got something crazy like six chickens, two horses, a new puppy and probably a cat somewhere along the line,” Cumani tells The BINGE Guide from her English homestead of two years.
“We didn’t have any of them pre-lockdown, so we’ve definitely taken on a few new commitments,” she laughs.
It’s only the strict quarantine requirements in Australia and the uncertainty of getting a flight here from London that has stopped the 37-year-old from making the journey again.
“It’s so weird,” she says, “the last 13 years I’ve come to the Melbourne Cup Carnival in different guises, so it’s strange not to be there. I never anticipated not being able to come and especially for this reason. I don’t suppose anyone really anticipated a global pandemic this time last year, but hey, it’s not the end of the world and I’m happy to still be able to be involved from here in the middle of the night.”
Indeed, having seen Cumani perform in the early hours of the morning up close – doing pre-publicity for Magic Millions on breakfast TV last year – there’s no doubt she’s a stayer when it comes to making it all work.
What she brings to any coverage is not just the kind of trackside glamour Flemington will be sadly missing this year, but also a pedigree for horse racing and commentary that is winning her acclaim around the world.
Still, Australia can take pride in our eye for good stock, having given Cumani her first start in TV back in 2008.
Charged with introducing one of her horse trainer father Luca’s Cup hopefuls, Purple Moon, to the local media, her skill at managing the horse and translating the form made an instant and lasting impression on TV producers here; with Seven first to sign her up to its commentary team.
It’s not an opportunity Cumani was expecting, she says happy to travel with and help prepare ponies from her father’s well-regarded and successful stable.
“It’s something, I suppose, that evolved organically. And I think I was very lucky to be given the opportunity down in Australia all those years ago. To have people that had faith in me because it definitely took me time to get to where I’ve got to,” she admits.
“I think a lot of that’s to do with confidence and believing in yourself, and also, you know, learning about the world of TV. I was very much a raw, horsey girl who knew plenty about horses. But to transition that to TV takes a bit of time. Getting that break in Australia was huge for me. And then that became a career with CNN covering the world and going to all the biggest race meetings, learning how to make more of a magazine style show. Then when the offer of a job on ITV came along, I was really excited to take it because obviously I grew up with all the English racing and the opportunity to present the Derby and the Grand National and Royal Ascot was huge.”
She smiles widely: “Sometimes I do still pinch myself and you never quite believe that you’re there when even you are there.”
When she was named Broadcast Sports Presenter of the Year at the British Sports Journalism Awards earlier this year, (beating out longstanding favourites including football icon, Gary Lineker), it’s right to say this filly has well and truly found her feet.
“It was honestly completely surreal, bizarre, because I do fundamentally probably think of myself as a horsey person who happens to be on TV, rather than a career broadcaster.”
In a full circle moment, Cumani spent the early months of the UK lockdown riding around her property and local trails on Purple Moon – the racehorse which kickstarted her TV career.
“He thought he was retired and then I got him going again to lead my kid’s pony. Now he’s doing more and more. I’ve got him jumping. I’ve got him going on long rides and he’s great. Finding that bond with him again during lockdown has been wonderful. Something I probably wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t been restricted to home and had more time to do that. Now my daily highlight would be going out for a cruise around on him. And then he sticks his head in the kitchen window for apples and steals anything out of the fruit bowl that he can get his hands on. Bananas, grapefruit … he’s hilarious.”
The home stay also gave Cumani time to teach Harry to ride – her four-year-old son she co-parents with estranged husband and Australian polo star, Rob Archibald.
Thankfully, he’s caught the family bug, she confirms.
“He loves it and I love seeing his confidence around the horses. He loves just kind of going up to them and giving them a cuddle. They’ll nuzzle his hair and he doesn’t mind … he’s really, really into it.”
Casting her eye over the form leading into this year’s Cup, Cumani was, not surprisingly, spruiking an English horse, Anthony Van Dyke, which won the Epsom Derby and a key trial for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (the best horse race in Europe).
“He beat a horse called Stradivarius, who’s like a complete staying star. So I think he’s basically the highest class horse that’s been sent out there from here. But look, it makes it interesting because the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup, they are handicaps. So a horse like that being so well credentialed then gets given top weight. It’s whether he can defy that weight on his back and show how good he is, I don’t know.”
On her fashion predictions, she is less assured.
“It will be quite strange … middle of the night for me. Winter. At home. All dressed up and nowhere to go,” she laughs.
* Melbourne Cup Carnival continues 10am, today, on 10.
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