By JAMES FENNESSY
BART Cummings has had a hugely successful horse racing campaign this spring which will get even better if one of his six Melbourne Cup hopefuls gets up on the first Tuesday of November.
Who is Bart Cummings?
James Bartholomew (Bart) Cummings was born and raised in Adelaide. He began work for his father, Jim Cummings, at the Adelaide stables after completing high school. Bart took out his training licence in 1953 and won his first Group 1 race with Stormy Passage, in the SAJC Derby, in 1958. Cummings established headquarters at Flemington in 1968, and Randwick in 1975, where he manages the training and spelling of horses. Cummings now owns a 150 acre breeding and spelling complex at Castlereagh in NSW. What has he achieved?
In 2008 Cummings had a fantastic year. He trained the winner of the Australia Cup (Sirmione) and the Melbourne Cup (Viewed). However 2009 is looking to be an even better spring carnival as Cummings trained winners in the Caulfield Cup (again with Viewed) and the Cox Plate (So You Think) and has six runners in the 2009 Melbourne Cup. Cummings trained his first Melbourne Cup winner in 1965 and has trained a total of 12, earning him the nickname, the ‘Cups King’. He has 256 Group 1 wins in his 56-year career. In 1988, he became the first trainer to trainer earners of more than $6 million in prize-money. That amount is now more than $32 million. He was inducted into Australia’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1991 and was the first inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2001. Cummings has also won numerous trainers premierships in NSW, VIC and SA. He is the only trainer to win all four of Australia’s biggest races at least four times. The Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Golden Slipper and the Cox Plate. On top of all that, he has just launched his autobiography called, Bart: My Life.
Can ‘Eyebrows’ win the 2009 Melbourne Cup?
First, there has been widespread debate over the man they call “Eyebrows”. Many call them bizarre. Others say they’re definitive. However you look at it, they are some serious eyebrows. Can Eyebrows win the Melbourne Cup two years in a row? Absolutely, he has done it before. He trained consecutive winners in 1965, 66 and 67. He did it again, this time with the same horse, Think Big in 1974 and 75. And yet again in 1990 and 1991. Bart Cummings is the trainer that has ruled supreme over the last five decades. You can never count him out. This year he has some good runners in the $5 million race that stops a nation. Viewed would have to be the favourite, winning last year’s Melbourne Cup and this year’s Caulfield Cup. The six-year-old will go into the race as a good chance. Bart also has Allez Wonder, Dandaad, Naval Escort, Roman Emperor and Think Money racing in the Melbourne Cup.
Is Cummings Australia’s best trainer?
Bart Cummings is arguably Australia’s best. His past achievements and his ability to keep winning make him the most successful horse trainer but does that make him the best?
Pushing 82, he has accomplished everything there is to accomplish in Australian racing. Jindabyne-born, Thomas John (T.J.) Smith is the only man that has trained more Group 1 winners than Bart, with 279. Current trainers are nowhere near Cummings. Lee Freedman has 123 Group 1 wins compared to Bart’s 256 (and counting). Some newspapers are now saying that Cummings is an even bigger Australian sporting icon than Sir Donald Bradman.
What happens in Bart: My Life?
Cummings has always been a man of few words with mystery surrounding him. Bart: My Life explores the man behind the mystery. He tells of how he watched and emulated his father and with extreme hard work, forged himself into racing history as a legendary trainer. This is not just a book for horse-racing enthusiasts. Anyone who appreciates hard work, enduring highs met with enduring lows, and the ambition to do what you want to do will enjoy Bart:My Life. Although there is a bit of racing history that Bart shares his exclusive perspective on which some might find a bit mundane. Overall this book has received good reviews. Cummings shows his dry sense of humour throughout the autobiography and explores the interesting trainers, jockeys and owners that he has worked alongside. He talks about the joys of his racing career, like winning his first Melbourne Cup but also discusses the lows, like when he was going bankrupt. He spent $22 million on horses and couldn’t sell them due to the early 1990s recession. Bart would have been in trouble if it wasn’t for some good (and well-off) friends, who thought Bart deserved to keep training.
Why is he interesting?
Bart Cummings was told at 16 that he should stay away from horses due to his allergies. Imagine if he listened to his doctor. His father Jim trained one Melbourne Cup winner in 1950, Comic Court and died fifteen years later, just months before Bart won his first Cup. Cummings describes himself to this day, an 81-year-old, as “a son applying my father’s lessons and carrying on my father’s work,” (Bart: My Life). He has modeled his life and career around his dad. He is a humble man whose success has only come after discipline, hard work and sticking to his plans.
Cummings has no plans to retire. And why should he? At 81 he has won the Caulfield, the Cox Plate, and could take out a second Melbourne Cup in two years.
