Cummings to train in Honk Kong as Maher firms for Randwick stables
The 37-year-old, already a 52-time group 1 winner, was on Wednesday announced by the Hong Kong Jockey Club today as a new trainer for the 2026-27 season, which starts in September next year.
Cummings will finish his more than eight-year his tenure as Godolphin Australia's head trainer on July 31 after the racing giant's announcement in late April that it would be moving to a public training model.
He was set to build his own team, with support from the likes of Godolphin and Dynamic Syndications, but that plan now looks in doubt given his decision to accept the HKJC invitation.
The move also means Cummings has withdrawn from the battle to take over Leilani Lodge at Royal Randwick, where he began his training career with his famous grandfather, who was based there during a career that yielded 12 Melbourne Cups.
The 55-box stable complex was vacated after James' father Anthony had his trainer's licence revoked by Racing NSW in February because of his financial difficulties.
Anthony and his son Edward fought briefly to keep the stables before the Australian Turf Club called for expressions of interest to trainers in the complex.
Top trainer Ciaron Maher, the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott team, and James Cummings were the applicants for the stables. The ATC board discussed the applications at a board meeting last month and decision is expected next month.
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Courier-Mail
16 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
Freedman Racing takes responsibility for race day treatment
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News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
Moruya tips, inside mail and preview for Sunday, August 17, 2025
Progressive staying mare Think I Do has been given the proverbial 'Bart Cummings preparation' leading into Sunday's Lake Conjola Bowling Club Handicap (2010m) which is only fitting given her close connection to the Cups King. The JJR Racing-housed mare is by Cummings' dual Cox Plate winner So You Think out a mare named Karata. She (Karata) was the final foal delivered by Let's Elope, one of Cummings' 13 Melbourne Cup winners whose show reel also included the Caulfield Cup, Australian Cup and Mackinnon Stakes. Think I Do has been on an upward trajectory her whole racing life with each one of her six starts being a little, or in some cases, a lot better than the last. • PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet's team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW! So much so that the Barbara Joseph, Paul and Matt Jones-trained four-year-old is unlucky not to be on a hat-trick heading into Sunday's 10-furlong assignment having been beaten a nose prior to her commanding maiden win at Forbes on the Cup day undercard. 'She's got brothers and half-brothers running around over the hurdles in Victoria but she has always shown she has got a little bit more of speed about her but I always knew she would stay,'' co-trainer Paul Jones said. 'It was very good to see her put two really good runs together and I think if this track is going to be playing deep and wide, they are going to know she's in the race.' Team Joseph/Jones are taking another of their Canberra equine lodgers to Moruya this weekend, Graceful Ellen who, like her aforementioned stablemate, is a last-start winner. In Graceful Ellen's case, it was in a Class 2 at the Sapphire Coast where she burst clear of her five rivals to win by the best part of two lengths, prompting a nomination for Saturday's TAB Highway at Rosehill (which she was balloted out of). 'I think she has earnt her colours to have a go (but) she was one or two Benchmark points below making the field on what was obviously quite a strong Highway,'' Jones said. 'It was a very good win at the Sapphire Coast, in fact it was one of the better wins on the day, the way she ran up to them and ran away. 'She's always been a smart little filly who has shown us just enough and as she has got stronger, we're very happy with what he has done.' Graceful Ellen's current earnings top $60,000, or 10 times her purchase price at the 2023 Magic Millions Yearling Sale. 'This skinny little scrawny chestnut walked in with a neck on her like a giraffe,'' Jones recalled. 'I think they started the bidding off at $2000 and Mum (Barbara Joseph) put her hand up and it got knocked down to her for $6000.' Graceful Ellen was a member of the third and ultimately second to last crop of foals sired by the barnstorming sprinter Spieth. Her dam Hennessy Rock was a handy filly in her time, her career highlight coming at her third career start when she clocked in fourth in the Listed TRC Elwick Stakes in Hobart on the 2014 Tasmanian Derby day. â– â– â– â– â– MORUYA TIPS BEST BET Race 1 No.3: PERFORMING DIVA Hasn't run a bad race yet; this one looks like it is her reward for effort. NEXT BEST Race 5 No.12: THINK I DO So You Think granddaughter of Let's Elope who is crying out for the 2010m now. VALUE BET Race 4 No.1: BOBS BACK Should feel comfortable in this grade of race. Trialled well. QUADDIE Race 4: 1, 4, 5 Race 5: 3, 12 Race 6: 2, 5, 6, 8, 10 Race 7: 6, 7, 9 JOCKEY TO FOLLOW QUAYDE KROGH has enough horse power to figure in the Jockeys Challenge outcome. MORUYA INSIDE MAIL PERFORMING DIVA (3) has a second placing either side of two fourths, the last one was here at Moruya when she was first-up on the Heavy 8. The Pat Murphy-trained daughter of Breeders' Plate and Canonbury Stakes winner Performer kept to the task honourably that day. Drawn one so can expect her to be very prominent indeed throughout. WRITTEN BY LUCY (4) likewise is yet to run a bad race in her short career thus far. In fact, she has taken part in two incredibly strong maidens, both back in March. BET: PERFORMING DIVA to win, exacta 3 to beat 4. VERMICELLA (4) is a Gerry Harvey-owned and bred mare by Pierro from his own (great) St Kate female line. It has to be said that Joe Cleary has done an awesome job with this mare, a fact reflected in her record of four wins and three placings from nine runs. On top of that, her numbers at Moruya are fabulous. TOES IN THE WATER (1) has the highest benchmark rating of any horse racing at Moruya – 79. He is '889' coming into this but two were on the Kensington, the other one at Kembla. Going better than it looks on paper. BET: VERMICELLA to win. RACE 3: MAIDEN PLATE (1660m) FEEDBACK (4) is another Harvey/Cleary (and jockey Quayde Krogh) runner on the card. This one is a gelding by Kermadec whose last three, of a total of six career starts, are for Cleary and they are all thirds. What appeals most is the respective winners of those races – Sweet About Me, Brutal Eyes and Sawmill (here, on August 5). BRUME DE SOLIEL (16) has looked like a miler pretty much every one of his three starts this time in. He was $14 into $10 last start here, for good reason, and ran on especially well in that 1310m maiden. BET: FEEDBACK to win, Brume De Soliel each-way. BOBS BACK (1) is a Kerry Parker-trained son of Hallowed Crown who was unplaced in his four runs at his opening preparation from February to March but he clocked in '6544' across that time so was hard poor. 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BET: THINK I DO to win, exacta 12 to beat 3, box trifecta 3,6,7,12, DD 1st Leg 12, 2nd Leg 9. HOLD (8) was scheduled to race at Kembla on Saturday but the meeting was washed out. The mere fact that trainer John Nisbet was going to take on provincial grade with the mare says a lot about how she must be going. She has a very, very good fresh record, all three wins have come first-up. Handles the soft/heavy. PRETTY SASSY (6) likewise was down to race at Kembla. Speaking of fresh records, Pretty Sassy is two from two first-up. Pleasurize meanwhile is two from two – period! BLUE BAYOU (9) wears the colours of his Sir Rupert Clarke-winning uncle Rebel Dane, aka the father of Golden Slipper winner, Fireburn. This Laurel Oak mare has finished runner-up at each of her two starts this preparation, one by less than a neck, the other by a nose. Important to note that both of them were at Moruya. 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News.com.au
2 days ago
- News.com.au
Tony Gollan targets another win with an ex-Godolphin horse at Doomben to continue his flying start to season
Tony Gollan has started the new racing season with a bang, training more winners than any other Australian trainer at a metropolitan level, and he plans to continue the theme by scoring on Saturday with his latest former Godolphin galloper. The new season is still young but Gollan (13 metro winners at a 28 per cent strike rate) has more wins in city areas than Chris Waller (12) and the likes of Ciaron Maher (6) and Annabel and Rob Archibald (5). Gollan has won 12 consecutive Brisbane training titles and the key to some of that success is that he is not only formidable when Queensland carnivals are on, but also at off-season time. In recent weeks he has won races with former James Cummings -trained ex-Godolphin gallopers Pereille and Amur and on Saturday at Doomben he will unleash Fleetwood, another ex-Blue Army galloper. Fleetwood is the well-fancied $3 favourite to make a winning debut for the Gollan stable when he contests the BM85 Handicap (1110 metres) at Doomben. • Fruit market king eyes another Melbourne Cup Fleetwood, a five-year-old gelding, won five races for Cummings and tuned up for Saturday's race with a trial win for Gollan at Doomben last month. Gollan likes the look of him as a Queensland summer carnival prospect, but there is just one small query in his mind about Saturday's race. 'I sort of wish we were running him in a plate race rather than a handicap, as he has probably more weight (61.5kg) than I anticipated in this race,' Gollan said. 'When Pereille won, he was in a set weights race and you are getting in well under what your handicap is. 'But Fleetwood has actually got to carry his true handicap here. 'It certainly gives horses that have got a weight advantage on him a chance to beat him. 'That's my only negative, the weight, but he is certainly good enough. 'If I can secure a smooth enough run, even with the weight, he's hard to beat. 'Ability wise he has probably got a bit on some of these, I think he's a nice horse. 'Hopefully we can do a job with him on Saturday and then put him away and he can come back in the summer carnival and be a really nice horse. 'I definitely see him as a summer carnival horse.' Gollan said Fleetwood had taken longer to settle into new surroundings than Pereille and other horses that had come to his stable from down south. But he is cherry ripe now and the star trainer is going to have some fun with him. 'I loved his trial, I love the way the horse is going and the way he has settled in now,' Gollan said. 'I don't totally know where his distance range sits yet, but I really like what I have seen of him. 'These horses obviously come to you very fit and well.' . @bendorries76 is liking a Tony Gollan horse at Doomben this Saturday as his best bet ðŸ�‡ Imagine what you could be buying instead. — Racenet (@RacenetTweets) August 14, 2025 As for kicking off the season with a brace of city winners, Gollan said his stable had put significant planning into the off-season campaigns of his horses. The proof is in the pudding. 'We have had a great start to the season and the work that has been done all winter getting some of these horses ready to go is starting to bear fruit now,' Gollan said. 'There are a lot of horses who can really learn their trade and get some confidence under their belt in this off-season racing. 'A lot of these horses are going to make nice horses in the next 12 months. 'They are learning what winning is all about and they are doing things well.'
