Roman Son will be after his fourth consecutive win when he runs at Randwick but though Anthony and Edward Cummings have far more coveted victories in mind for the developing stayer.
The four-year-old returns from a let-up prompted by a foot abscess in Saturday’s National Jockeys Trust Handicap (2000m), the first step towards a race of great importance to the father and son training partnership.
Ideally Roman Son will advance to The Bart Cummings at Flemington October 7, a Group Three handicap over 2500 metres which offers the winner a ballot exemption for The Melbourne Cup.
“If we were to win it we would have a sure fire starter in the Melbourne Cup,” Edward Cummings said.
“There’s no better end to that story apart from winning the race.”
The legendary trainer’s grandson acknowledged Roman Son was a considerable distance from providing a fairytale ending at Flemington on November 7.
“They’re lofty goals. We haven’t had a runner in The Bart Cummings since it was renamed (from the Banjo Paterson Handicap) in 2004,” he said.
“We’ll just be happy to have a competitive stayer through the spring.”
Roman Son started his winning sequence in June at Kembla Grange over 1400m.
He last raced at Warwick Farm in a Benchmark 67 Handicap (2200m) on June 28 and Cummings said coming back to 2000 metres would not be an issue.
“He came through that blown-out abscess quite well, he’s much stronger,” he said.
“He trialled up really nicely last Friday. It’s not a perfect draw (7) but he’s down in the weights (54kg), not a bad place to be for a young stayer.”
Roman Son is byRoman Emperor out of Miss Meliss, both of whom were trained by the late Bart Cummings.
Roman Son was rated a $12 chance with the TAB on Thursday in a market led by Up ‘N’ Rolling ($2), one of Chris Waller’s quartet of runners.
The Cummings duo also have six-year-old Muraqaba ($7) trying to make amends for missing the jump in his past two starts at Randwick.
He will wear a barrier blanket to try to avoid a repeat in his 1600m-race.
“I’d expect him to bounce back and be on speed like we planned in the last two starts,” Cummings said.
