James Cummings: racing’s new $150 million man
There was a serendipity about James Cummings’ first Australian Cup win on Saturday, as Godolphin Australia’s head trainer continues to build on a phenomenally successful season, and career.
On July 8, 2017, James Cummings, carrying arguably the most famous surname in Australian racing, stepped into the biggest shoes in the country. Aged just 29, he assumed the role of Godolphin’s head trainer in Australia and had a winner at Warwick Farm with his first runner, Manicure (Exceed And Excel).
On the same weekend, half a world away at Chantilly in France, Cascadian (New Approach) also stepped out for his first appearance in the famous Godolphin blue, and was similarly impressive, winning by four and a half lengths for trainer Andre Fabre.
Fast forward five-and-a-half years, and the two Godolphin green shoots from 2017 combined at Flemington to give Cummings a very significant first Australian Cup (Gr 1, 2000m), a race his grandfather, Bart (J.B), won an extraordinary 13 times, and his brother Edward claimed last year.
It was also Godolphin’s first win, at its seventh attempt, in what is one of Australia’s most historically important races.
The moment wasn’t lost, with commentator Matthew Hill hailing James Alexander Cummings’ first success in a race that James Bartholomew Cummings had made his own: “It’s the Cummings name again in the Australian Cup.”
The narrative arc for James Cummings has been set from the moment he joined his grandfather Bart in a training partnership in August 2013, and there is no bigger shadow to have to step out of than the man who won 246 Group 1 level races (or 268, depending on who you ask!).
What the 2022/23 season is telling us is that despite the formidable family history, James Cummings is firmly forging his own identity and, in the process, building the future legacy of Godolphin in Australia.
On the same weekend that Godolphin’s head honchos from around the world were meeting in the global powerhouse’s home base for the Dubai World Cup, Cummings and the blue army celebrated their 11th Group 1 victory of the season.
That puts Cummings on top of the hyper-competitive Australian training ranks when it comes to elite-level winners this season, three clear of Chris Waller with Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, two back, on six.
Anamoe (Street Boss) has certainly played a major role in this, with six Group 1 wins, but Cummings has also had Group 1 successes this season from In Secret (I Am Invincible) (two), Cascadian, Paulele (Dawn Approach) and Golden Mile (Astern). It is not yet April, but it is already his best Group 1 seasonal haul as a trainer, surpassing the eight top-flight wins he had in 2018/19.
It is also destined to be his best season on prize-money earned as a trainer. His 2022/23 total is a smidgen short of $30 million, behind only Waller, and just $400,000 short of Cummings’ career best. His seasonal win percentage of 19.8 per cent is also a career high and rises to 29 per cent in Group 1 races.
Cummings’ Group 1 winners-to-overall runners rate is charting at a stratospheric 1.7 per cent. For context, Waller’s career-best over a season, even in the Winx (Street Cry) days, was 0.82 per cent – while 8.66 per cent of Cummings’ winners this season have been in Group 1 races.
The success this season runs down the graded racing scale, with Cummings having 42 stakes wins to date, including four on Saturday, nine more than Waller, despite having 37 per cent fewer starters in those races. That is not to diminish Waller’s achievements – he is a phenomenal trainer whichever way you look at his stats – but highlights just what a run Godolphin and Cummings are on this season.
They are rapidly closing in on that 2018/19 season, when they had 61 stakes wins, with the resultant black type so important to Godolphin’s broader breeding business.
| Leading Group 1 trainers in Australia – 2022/23 | |||||
| G1 wins | G1 runners | G1 winners/G1 runners | Stakes
winners |
Overall runners | |
| James Cummings | 11 | 38 | 28.95% | 42 | 643 |
| Chris Waller | 8 | 62 | 12.90% | 33 | 1546 |
| Ciaron Maher & David Eustace | 6 | 51 | 11.76% | 22 | 1187 |
| Mick Price | 3 | 28 | 10.71% | 13 | 488 |
| Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott | 3 | 26 | 11.54% | 22 | 508 |
| Annabel Neasham | 3 | 26 | 11.54% | 14 | 603 |
Exactly how important Cummings is to Godolphin can be measured by the fact that, since August 1 last year, he is responsible for training 11 of the 21 global Group 1 wins in the royal blue.
In terms of the breeding program, of the 18 individual Group 1 winners Cummings has trained since taking the reins at Godolphin Australia, four have gone to stud as stallions, with three of them – Bivouac (Exceed And Excel), Microphone (Exceed And Excel) and Impending (Lonhro) – still active at Darley. The fourth, Kementari (Lonhro), proved sub-fertile, was gelded and returned to the racing program, where he has been a subsequent multiple stakes winner.
However, the most significant addition to the breeding barn from Cummings’ stable will come later this year. With nine Group 1 wins Anamoe is, globally, already the most successful Group 1 performer ever for Godolphin and, as things stand, will be the most prolific Group 1 winner to stand at Darley since Lonhro (Octagonal), who was pensioned from duties only last week.
Cummings’ role in eliciting and managing Anamoe’s racetrack talent has been significant and is inarguably the greatest highlight of his Godolphin stint to date. But he has also overseen the development of multiple Group 1 winners such as Alizee (Sepoy), Avilius (Pivotal), Bivouac, Colette (Hallowed Crown), Trekking (Street Cry), In Secret and Cascadian.
Alizee and Colette, alongside the Cummings-prepared Group 1-winning fillies Kiamichi (Sidestep), Flit (Medaglia D’Oro) and Willowy (Kermadec), now hold pride of place among Godolphin’s broodmare band, where In Secret’s destiny also lies when her racing days are done.
Such quality is a huge fillip for any breeder, even one with the global strength of Godolphin, and it won’t be long until a second generation from these Group 1 winners adds to Cummings’ stable strength. Thankfully, the trainer knows a thing or two about intergenerational expectation.
All this success needs to be put in the context that Cummings is just 35 years old. As things stand, he has 40 Group 1 winners (plus two in that partnership with Bart) and his runners have won over $153 million in prize-money. In many ways, still early in his Godolphin journey, he is just getting started.
It is worth reflecting that his famous grandfather didn’t win his first of 12 Melbourne Cups until he was 38. The first of Tommy Smith’s 33 straight Sydney training premierships came when that Hall Of Fame legend was 36. When Waller turned 35, in March 2009, he had only one Group 1 to his name.