Savvy Nature’s rating as the main danger to his colt Drago has only heightened trainer Anthony Cummings’s expectations going into the $200,000 Gloaming Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday.
While Cummings respects the Spring Stakes as a lead-up race to the Gloaming, he’s hardly overwhelmed by the result.
Drago - Photo by Steve Hart
His filly Wordplay took late ground off Savvy Nature to finish second in the Newcastle race and Cummings gives the impression she would find it hard to measure up against Drago.
“That’s why I’m pretty relaxed about Saturday,” he said.
Cummings is placing his trust in Drago as a stayer of superior quality to win out against a minor query on race condition in the Gloaming.
“Savvy Nature will have some sort of fitness edge on Drago but you’d have to think we’ve got a bit of class on our side to overcome that,” he said.
Since closing his two-year-old term with a win over the Gloaming course in May, Drago has been identified as a Group One winner in waiting.
It’s a tag that Cummings says could have easily been put to bed in the colt’s first campaign.
“In the Champagne Stakes he needed a bit of luck which he didn’t get,” he said.
“If the luck came he might have won it.”
Drago returned to Group One competition against the speedsters in the Golden Rose and didn’t disappoint Cummings with a midfield finish.
“Both of his runs have been good and he continues to work well,” he said.
Drago holds Gloaming favouritism at $3 with Savvy Nature at $4.20.
Aside from the Gai Waterhouse-trained Hydro ($7), the rest of the field has been assessed at double figure quotes.
Both favourites have drawn outside gates but Cummings expects the profile of the race to work in their favour.
“My horse has an awkward draw but there should be enough speed for him to be effective regardless of that,” he said.
Drago is the best of Cummings’s four Rosehill runners but he also fancies talented mare Arctic Flight to be in the money in the $250,000 Golden Pendant.
Arctic Flight signalled that she is in for another winning campaign with her first-up placing in the Sheraco Stakes.
