Cummings Pleased with Smart Thousand Guineas Fillies

Two promising fillies from the Sydney stables of James Cummings have pleased their trainer with strong hit-outs this week by the Thousand Guineas-nominated duo.

Skylight Glow

Skylight Glow is one of four 2016 Thousand Guineas nominated fillies for Sydney horseman James Cummings this season. Photo: Steve Hart.

Cummings is planning the spring assault of a number of his progressive new season three-year-olds including Smart Amelia and Skylight Glow won ran fourth in their respective Randwick trials on Tuesday morning.

He has a total of four fillies among the nominations for this season’s $500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m), scheduled to run at Caulfield Racecourse on Saturday October 8.

Two of those trialled well this week with Skylight Glow finishing fourth to the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott-trained More Than Ready filly Purrari in Heat 14 (749m) and Smart Amelia fourth to stablemate Nassak in Heat 15 (749m).

Of the two, well-bred Northern Meteor filly Skylight Glow is the better performed boasting two wins from her opening three career starts last season.

Her latest win was over 1400m in a two-years-old set weights plus penalties event at Randwick in late May, while Smart Amelia remains a maiden after two tougher class assignments as a juvenile.

The daughter of Smart Missile ran a brave second on debut behind Honesty Prevails in the Group 3 Widden Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on January 30 before a last start ninth to Scarlet Rain at Randwick in late February’s Group 2 Sweet Embrace Stakes (1200m).

Cummings couldn’t be happier with the current progress of the two fillies who he plans to trial again before confirming a first-up spring option.

“We’re hoping horses like Skylight Glow and Smart Amelia can keep jumping up to the bar when we raise them,” he told Racenet on Tuesday.

“They both trialled today and we’ll see where their preparations take them but they both look to have returned well.

“I’m happy with the actions of both fillies but we may well trial both of them again before throwing them into the deep end and running both of the first-up in difficult races.”

Both are likely to head south to Melbourne for a Thousand Guineas bid if they can perform well early in their campaigns.

Smart Amelia pays $67 in all-in Thousand Guineas markets at Ladbrokes.com.au while Skylight Glow is slightly better fancied by the bookmakers at $41.

Cummings is yet to prepare a Thousand Guineas winner but his late great grandfather whom he previously trained in partnership with, Bart Cummings, won the race four times in the past 30 years with: Tristanagh (1989), Richfield Lady (1991), Dashing Eagle (1996) and Magical Miss (2001).

His other two Thousand Guineas entries this Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival are Savvan ($151) who ran second at Warwick Farm on debut on August 3 over 1100m in the wet and the unraced High Chaparral filly High Impulse ($201).

The Thousand Guineas received two late nominations on Tuesday bringing the total number of early entries to 261.

Early favourite is the David Vandyke-trained Inglis Sires’ Produce winner Yankee Rose.

Runner-up to star colt Capitalist in the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m) before her 1400m Group 1 Randwick win in the autumn, the daughter of All American is set to resume racing in the $1 million Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens on September 10.

About The Author

Lucy Henderson

Lucy is an experienced horse racing journalist that has been a crucial member of the horseracing.com.au team for the better part of a decade. She has taken great delight in covering champion mares Black Caviar and Winx throughout their careers and always has a soft spot for a winning filly.