Anthony Cummings-trained Shadows In The Sun will resume in the Winter Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday as he works towards a 2013 Spring Racing Carnival campaign that Cummings hopes will be highlighted by a run in the Melbourne Cup (3200m).
Trainer Anthony Cummings has set Shadows In The Sun for an ambitious Melbourne Cup campaign. Photo by: Steve Hart
Shadows In The Sun failed to impress in his last campaign, with his only win coming in the Listed Australia Day Cup (2400m) at Warwick Farm, but Cummings is confident the Dane Shadow gelding can recapture the form that saw him win the 2011 Group 1 South Australian Derby (2500m) and be competitive at the highest level of racing.
Although he isn’t expected to be a contender over the shorter distance in the Winter Stakes this weekend, Cummings is hopeful the rising six-year-old can run a good race.
“He’s a clean-winded horse who has come back in good form and he’s going well,” Cummings told TVN.
“We’ll give him the chance to prove he’s good enough.
“I don’t think he’s very far away and we’ll let him find his feet and find out where he fits in.
“If he’s good enough he’ll go towards the Cups.”
The Assyrian, Gatum Gatum and Subzero are the only horses to have gone on to win the Melbourne Cup after winning the South Australian Derby and the most recent winners of the race have failed to have an impact in ‘the race that stops a nation’.
Zabeelionaire is the only South Australian Derby winner to run in the Melbourne Cup in the last five years, finishing 22nd in the 2012 edition of the race.
South Australian Derby winners have had more success in the Caulfield Cup (2400m) with Mummify winning the double in 2003.
Shadows In The Sun will be ridden by Nathan Berry for the first time in the Winter Stakes.
