James Cummings is enjoying an outstanding season with his two-year-olds and he will bid to parlay that into a Group 1 win on the final day of the Sydney autumn carnival.
The Godolphin head trainer will start late-blooming juveniles Amur and Tom Kitten in the Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday, the latter backing up from a last-to-first win in the Fernhill Mile over the same course and distance seven days earlier.
Amur took out the Baillieu Handicap to earn his chance at a major and Cummings said both youngsters were identified early on as horses who could come into their own at the back-end of the two-year-old season.
“Two big colts, both two-year-olds who we identified pretty early on in the piece had enough class that, once we could get them over a trip as two-year-olds, they’d be pretty interesting horses for us,” Cummings said.
“Now we’ve got the Baillieu winner and the Fernhill winner and we’re going into the Champagne Stakes with the fresh form and fresh horses.”
Tom Kitten’s Fernhill victory was another important stakes success for his young sire Harry Angel, part of the stallion roster at Godolphin’s breeding arm of Darley.
Harry Angel has also produced Blue Diamond Stakes placegetter Arkansaw Kid from his first crop to race and Tom Kitten’s emergence as black-type two-year-old has further underscored his sire’s potential.
“He’s leading the way on a few barometers as a young sire and to get a stakes winner during the carnival is pretty important,” Cummings said of Harry Angel.
“It’s a big goal kicked by a young sire on the way up.”
A field of 12 has been paid up for the final leg of Sydney’s juvenile triple crown with Chris Waller to be represented by Militarize and Fernhill fourth placegetter Tannhauser.
A victory by either would give Waller a clean sweep of the series after he captured the Golden Slipper (1200m) with Shinzo and ATC Sires’ Produce (1400m) with Militarize.
Cummings’ best result in the three juvenile Group 1s to date was Cylinder’s second in the Slipper but the stable has achieved outstanding results overall, saddling up 121 two-year-old runners this season for 23 winners, nine of them at black-type level.
