Cummings wraps up a double in Yellowglen Stakes

Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings capped off a tremendous day at Flemington today wrapping up a winning double with Fontelina in the Group 2 $300,000 Yellowglen Stakes (1200m).

Cummings had combined with Damien Oliver earlier to take out the feature race of the day, the Group 1 $1.5m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) with Fiveandahalfstar.

Winning rider Vlad Duric sat just behind the pace and elected to stay on the inside and was able to hold off the fast finishing Spirit Of Boom out wide on the track.

Fontelina was having his first run since finishing sixth at Rosehill in March and Duric was reasonably confident he had gained the photo result.

“They were wide apart, I wasn’t sure but I was pretty confident that I won,” Duric said.

Duric was happy to team up with Cummings while he was in Melbourne for the Spring after riding for the stable on previous occasions.

“Anthony has been a big supporter and I’m grateful for the opportunity, he’s had a great day and he’s prepared this horse very well for today,” Duric said.

Cummings thought he had won looking from the trainer’s stand and was glad the first up plan had succeeded.

“I thought he was going to win and then I saw the horse coming down the outside, I thought it was going to be close,” Cummings said.

“He’s done really well first up for us before, we’ve set him for the race a while ago, it’s just been nice to be here and get the job done. This was the obvious race for him.”

Fontelina started at the good odds of $13 and held on to score by a head from the fast finishing Spirit Of Boom ($8.50) and joint leader Tiger Tees ($9) holding on for third.

The disappointment of the race was the Con Karakatsanis trained Howmuchdoyouloveme who was sent of out the $3.10 favourite after scoring a runaway win in the Group 2 $220,000 Perri Cutten Caulfield Sprint (1100m) at Caulfield on October 20 first up from a spell.

Howmuchdoyouloveme was the centre of a pre-race inquiry when a bag containing tubing gear was discovered in the four year olds stall on race morning during a stewards’ stable inspection.

The classy sprinter was allowed to run but the stewards will reconvene the inquiry early next week after Karakatsanis told the inquiry that he had mistakenly carried the wrong bag to the horse’s stable and in fact thought there was a biscuit of hay in the bag.

About The Author

Mark Mazzaglia

Mark is a passionate journalist with a life-time involvement in the racing industry. He spent many years as an analyst and form expert at the Courier Mail and also has hands-on experience working with some of Queensland’s top trainers.