Long-term interests have won out over a potential end-of-year windfall for one of the best horses in Anthony Cummings’s stable.
Cummings is renowned for the deep-end approach with his string but his plans for Strike The Stars are measured by the Randwick trainer’s usual standards.
Strike The Stars will line up in the Festival Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday when he could have easily been in Perth having run in one Group One race while waiting to contest another.
But instead of figuring in last week’s Railway Stakes and next month’s Kingston Town Classic, Strike The Stars has returned to Sydney after a Melbourne campaign for a sequence of summer stakes races.
“I thought about Perth and he was on track to go but he felt the track at Flemington on the last day of the carnival and jarred up a little bit,” Cummings said.
“He’s a pretty nice horse and I want to look after him for the autumn.
“Perth can be pretty tough on horses and I wasn’t prepared to take that risk.”
It has taken time, but Strike The Stars is back in the form which made him a three-year-old of considerable promise after a Gloaming Stakes win and an Australian Guineas placing during the 2011-2012 racing season.
More than two years and 16 races went by after Strike The Stars’ Gloaming win until a first-up victory over 1400m.
His Randwick win last month earned a Melbourne Cup carnival call-up for a Group Three placing and a midfield return in the Group One Emirates Stakes.
Strike The Stars finished only two lengths from the winner Boban in the Emirates, convincing Cummings there are more wins ahead.
“He’s had his best prep since his three-year-old year so I’m pretty happy about that,” Cummings said.
“There’s this race (the Festival), he’s got the Villiers and he’s got the Summer Cup.
“If I got to that point then he can have a break and get ready for the autumn after that.”
Up and comers Terravista ($3.20) and White Sage ($3.40) standout in early Festival betting because of their impressive run through the classes.
Strike The Stars and one-time stablemate Ninth Legion are the only other horses under a double-figure quote as they share the third line of betting at $9.50.
