Bart Cummings’ famous colours, the green and gold diagonal strips and white cap, have been protected by the Australian Racing Board for the next sixty years.
Bart Cummings, The Cups King. Photo by Taron Clarke.
The colours have been carried to victory in numerous Group 1 races over the sixty years of Cumming’s training career and will be unable to be replicated before July 31, 2063.
Mighty mare Let’s Elope was one of many to carry the green and gold to victory, and is best remembered for her wins in the 1991 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, plus the Mackinnon Stakes win sandwiched in between as well as the Australia Cup the following year.
Dual Melbourne Cup winner Think Big and Derby winners Beau Zam and Dayana were also among the hundreds of winner’s to sport the famous silks.
“Bart Cummings is an iconic figure in Australian racing who has been at the forefront of his profession across 7 decades. His accomplishments are staggering including numerous Victorian and South Australian trainers’ premierships, 266 Group 1s and 12 Melbourne Cups” said Peter McGauran, Chief Executive of the ARB.
“Bart is revered by his peers and loved by the racing public. Bart has always had a great sense of occasion and raised the profile and popularity of racing with his dry sense of humour and pithy observations. There would scarcely be an Australian unaware of his endearing personality and training genius. Bart Cummings is synonymous with the Melbourne Cup in a way unknown with any other race or trainer in the world. He has generated expectation and excitement in the Cup for many years.”
“Bart has been a colossus in racing for as long as anyone can remember. His achievements and records can never be broken. He is a unique figure in history. As Bart commences a training partnership with his grandson James Cummings, racing wants to honour him in a way especially important to him – preservation of his racing colours. They have been worn by such champions as Lets Elope, Beau Zam, Leica Lover, Century, Cap D’Antibes, Vivarchi and Think Big amongst many others.”
Cummings, or ‘The Cup’s King’, as he is known, has a record second to none with twelve Melbourne Cup victories among his 266 Group 1 winners as well as 757 Stakes winners.
Now in the twilight of his illustrious career, Cummings has joined forces with his grandson James with the partnership getting off to flying start with a winning double at Randwick last Saturday with Streaking Comet and Eurozone.
2010 Australian Guineas winner Rock Classic was the last Cummings trained galloper to carry the green and gold to victory in a Group 1 race.
