30-04-2025
‘I'm very interested': Trainer James Cummings confirms application to base himself at Leilani Lodge at Randwick
James Cummings has confirmed he will make application to train out of famous Leilani Lodge at Royal Randwick after Godolphin revealed it is moving to a public training model from next season.
Cummings has been the private trainer at Godolphin for eight years, preparing 50 Group 1 winners for the 'Blue Army' with the likes of Anamoe, Broadsiding, Cascadian, Hartnell, Alizee and Bivouac.
But the champion trainer told Racenet he was considering all his options including possibly going back to where it all began – Leilani Lodge at Randwick.
'I'm very interested in making an application for Leilani Lodge,'' Cummings said. 'I can confirm it is my intention to apply.''
Cummings said he was 'comfortable' with his decision to go public with his training business.
'I think the time is right and from my perspective it is pretty exciting to be going back out on my own,'' he said.
Cummings will continue to train some horses for Godolphin from the start of the 2025-26 season including Group 1 winners Tom Kitten and Zardozi and top two-year-old Tempted.
It is understood Cummings will continue to train out of Godolphin's Carbine Lodge stables at Flemington.
The Australian Turf Club's expression of interest process for the Leilani Lodge stables is due to close on Monday at 5pm.
It is believed Cummings is among several of Sydney's biggest trainers who are potentially interested in applying for the stables.
Leilani Lodge has been with the Cummings family for five decades until James' father, Anthony, was forced to vacate the stables when his trainer's licence was revoked by Racing NSW in early March after his business went into liquidation.
James's grandfather, the legendary Bart Cummings first moved into Leilani Lodge at Randwick in the early 1980s and won a Sydney trainers' premiership from those stables in 1989-90.
An original Hall of Fame inductee, Bart Cummings prepared some of his greatest champions out of Leilani Lodge including Saintly, So You Think, Beau Zam, Shaftesbury Avenue, Sky Chase, Campaign King, Dane Ripper and many others.
If James Cummings is successful with his application to ATC for the vacant Leilani Lodge stable complex at Randwick, it will be a case of going back to the future.
James started his training career in partnership with his grandfather in August, 2013, preparing 95 winners together including Group 1 wins with Hallowed Crown in the 2014 Golden Rose and 2015 Randwick Guineas.
When Bart Cummings passed on August 30, 2015, James continued to train out of Leilani Lodge in his own right and in 2016 he prepared Prized Icon to Group 1 success in the Champagne Stakes and Victoria Derby.
But then James Cummings was approached by Godolphin in 2017 to take over as their private trainer from John O'Shea.
Cummings and Godolphin have been a formidable force in Australian racing ever since with the trainer preparing more than 1400 winners for the famous 'Royal Blue' colours including 50 at Group 1 level for stable earnings of over $200 million prizemoney.
Anamoe has been Godolphin's best horse during the Cummings era winning nine Group 1 races including the 2022 Cox Plate and earning Horse of the Honours in 2022-23.
Cummings also trained a Golden Slipper quinella in 2019 with Kiamichi and Microphone and the winners of the Golden Eagle (Colette, 2019), Doncaster Mile (Cascadian, 2021), Epsom Handicap (Hartnell, 2018), Tancred Stakes (Avilius, 2019), and two Golden Rose s with Broadsiding (2024) and Bivouac (2019).
The champion trainer also enjoyed tremendous success for Godolphin interstate preparing the winners of the All Star Mile (Tom Kitten, 2015), two Australian Cup s (Cascadian, 2023 and 2024), three Newmarket Handicap s (Bivouac, 2020, In Secret, 2023 and Cylinder, 2024), two VRC Oaks (Zardozi, 2024 and Willowy, 2021), two Caulfield Guineas (Anamoe, 2021 and Golden Mile, 2022), and a Stradbroke Handicap Trekking, 2019).
