Anthony Cummings spread himself and his horses across three different tracks in two states for the their final gallops ahead of Flemington’s Super Saturday meeting – and came away with positive results all round.
Cummings began the morning with his Victoria Derby winner Fiveandahalfstar at Caulfield where the horse rounded off his preparation for the Australian Cup.
He then drove across town to watch his Newmarket Handicap runner Fontelina trial at Flemington and somewhere in between he caught up by telephone with the work of the classy filly She’s A Fox who galloped at Randwick and will run in the MSS Security Stakes in Melbourne.
“It all seems to have worked out quite well,” Cummings said.
“I’m very happy with Fiveandahalfstar, I thought Fontelina went very well and the reports are that She’s A Fox had a good gallop.”
Perhaps the most encouraging of all was Fontelina who appeared in an 800m jumpout down the Flemington straight, accompanied by Western Australia’s Newmarket topweight Luckygray and local sprinter Lone Rock.
Luckygray won the trial from Fontelina, a result that gave Cummings great heart.
“I suppose the thing for us to think about going into Saturday is that we have 52.5 kilos and the horse he trialled with is at the top of the weights,” Cummings said.
Fontelina also has the advantage of having won a race over the Flemington straight course.
In that race – the Group Two Yellowglen Stakes – on Derby Day, Fontelina ran 1m08.81s and carried 54kg.
“We go in there on Saturday as a straight-track winner whose run the time with a kilo-and-a-half less in a race that probably doesn’t look any stronger,” he said.
Fiveandahalfstar goes into the Group One Australian Cup off a slightly questionable second over 1800m at Caulfield, but with more confidence from his trainer than before that run.
“At the beginning of his last preparation he got beaten in a maiden at Newcastle, so to come and run second at Group Two level first time out is obviously a pretty good run,” he said.
While Cummings is optimistic about the prospects of Fontelina and Fiveandahalfstar on Saturday and for the rest of the autumn, he is looking forward with even greater expectation to the appearance of She’s A Fox, a full sister to the well-performed Foxwedge.
“She’s a very exciting horse,” he said.
“She’ll be on a float tonight and you’ll see a very nice filly on Saturday.”
