Cummings Committed To Melbourne Despite Stable Close

Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings remains committed to racing horses in Melbourne, despite electing to close his Caulfield-based stable last week.

Anthony Cummings has elected to close his Melbourne-based stable following his teams frustrating 2014 Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Daniel Costello

Anthony Cummings has elected to close his Melbourne-based stable following his teams frustrating 2014 Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Daniel Costello

The Cummings team failed to fire during the 2014 Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival this morning and Cummings told Sky Racing HQ this morning that his Melbourne-based team have been decimated by a virus that swept through his stable.

Cummings said that it no longer made financial sense for him to have stables in both Sydney and Melbourne, but he confirmed that he will still be keen to travel horses during the major carnivals in Melbourne.

“After this year’s frustration and the cost factor I have recently closed our Melbourne stable,” Cummings said.

“Running a stable at below capacity there is not financially sensible and when the horse is going down into a new horse population, getting those challenges and not coping then you aren’t really providing for the owners they way that it was intended.

“We will just go down and be the normal visiting trainer when we go down next time as others do.”

While the closure of his Caulfield stable is sure to help the bottom financial line of the Cummings operation, it does make organizing his team during both the Melbourne Festival Of Racing and Spring Racing Carnival more difficult as he must organize accommodation for his horses.

Cummings said that he would be happy to continue to base his horses at Caulfield when they travel to Melbourne, but he admits that he will be relying on the kindness and generosity of rivals trainers to find a horse for his horses during the busiest times of the racing year.

“I was pretty happy at Caulfield, but the reality was that there was an issue there this year and we will be very attentive to those types of things next year or whenever we want to go to make sure,” Cummings said.

“I suppose that there are people that you have forged relationships along the way that will give you a hand and I’m hopeful to be able to lean on a few people for that.

“I am hopeful that works and I know at Flemington they have a visitors stable there and that has a big attraction simply because there won’t be a resident horse population there and the bugs won’t be in a place like that.”

Cummings was unable to record a win at Group level during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival and has not recorded a win at the highest level of racing in Victoria since Fiveandahalfstar took out the 2012 edition of the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m).

About The Author

Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.