Shamus tops the charts as Duais lands stallion a third elite level winner of season in Queensland Oaks
Edward becomes the latest Cummings to add Group 1 training win from illustrious racing family
Rosemont Stud’s Shamus Award (Snitzel) moved to the top of the Group 1-winning sire charts for the 2020/21 season after siring his third Group 1 winner this term courtesy of yesterday’s Queensland Oaks (Gr 1, 2200m) winner Duais (3 f Shamus Award – Meerlust by Johannesburg).
The son of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), who has just four crops of racing age, drew level with Written Tycoon (Iglesia), leader of the general classification sire standings this season, on three Group 1 winners for the campaign, ahead of a host of leading sires on two, including Snitzel, Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Frankel (Galileo), All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and Savabeel (Zabeel).
Duais became Shamus Award’s second individual Oaks winner for the season, following on from Media Award’s win in the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) last month, a feat only achieved by Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) (2013) in the last 20 years, when the champion stallion won the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) with Royal Descent and the Tasmanian Oaks (Listed, 2100m) with Global Balance.
Mr Quickie, a first-crop flagbearer for the Cox Plate- (Gr 1, 2040m) winning stallion, claimed the Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) in October last year, adding to his Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) win of 2019.
The win was also a momentous occasion for a great family of Australian racing, as Edward Cummings, grandson of Bart, son of Anthony and brother of James, won his first Group 1 since leaving a partnership with his father and going it alone at the start of 2019.
Duais, a homebred for Matthew Irwin and his family, won the Adrian Knox Stakes (Gr 3, 2000m) at Randwick on April 10, before backing up with a second in the Australian Oaks a week later, and was freshened up ahead of this Group 1 assignment in Brisbane, in an adept training performance from the latest Cummings to add his name to the Australian Group 1-winning trainer list.
Sent off the $2.80 favourite, Hugh Bowman took Duais straight to the back pair of the 13-runner field, a position she assumed until turning for home as the pace ebbed and flowed up front, with Ruru (So You Think) making a mid-race move to keep the tempo honest.
Bowman swung off heels, picking a gap between horses down the centre of the track in the straight, and finished much the dominant force to win by a going-away two and a half lengths ahead of New Zealand-bred duo Charms Star (Per Incanto) and Signora Nera (Sweynesse), to cue a clench of the fist from the jockey as he crossed the line and euphoria from Cummings and his team.
Out of Meerlust, Duais became the first Group 1 winner in the southern hemisphere by a Johannesburg (Hennessy) mare, despite the stallion boasting winners of a Preakness Stakes (Gr 1, 9f), Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f), Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) and the Middle Park Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) at Newmarket in a broodmare sire capacity. Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Jamaea (Headwater) became the first Group 2 winner in Australia out of a Johannesburg mare in April this year.
Meerlust was purchased by Matthew Irwin for just $22,000 as a yearling from the Scone May sale in 2009 and, despite claiming just the one win at Grafton in a five-race career, has been a prolific producer in the breeding barn.
Her second foal is Sunshine Coast Guineas (Gr 3, 1600m) winner Baccarat Baby (Casino Prince), while Duais, her fourth named foal, becomes her second stakes winner. Baccarat Baby was sold for $650,000 to Spendthrift Australia as the curtain came down on her 27-start career which yielded eight wins, including two at stakes level.
The mare has a two-year-old sister to Duais named Amity Gal who is trained by David Van Dyke, while she was served by All Too Hard last year.
Edward adds name to Cummings roll of honour board
The first was Jim. The greatest was Bart. Anthony took the baton, while the contemporary is James. And the latest; Edward.
The Cummings family name is synonymous with some of the most iconic moments of Australian racing history. And yesterday it was Edward Cummings who carved his name into the Cummings’ Group 1-winning tradition. .
Duais became Edward Cummings’ first stakes winner when winning the Adrian Knox Stakes in April, and secured a first Group 1 win for the blue-blooded trainer yesterday, with this a training performance his ancestors and decorated family members would have been proud of.
In a preparation that began with her maiden win at Newcastle on December 20, Cummings campaigned the filly via a freshen up to wins at Warwick Farm on March 31 and the Adrian Knox just ten days later, while running second in the Australian Oaks behind Hungry Heart (Frankel) just a week after that.
Coming off an absence of seven weeks yesterday, the trainer rejuvenated his stable star to deliver a scintillating performance at Eagle Farm, with a visibly emotional Cummings overawed in the aftermath of the result.
“It’s definitely been an interesting experience,” he said. “I suppose I thought she could win that way and I’m glad she did.
“We’ve done it before already in the prep (freshen the horse up). She was about seven weeks between runs from Hawkesbury to Warwick Farm. We took her to the trials about three weeks out from Warwick Farm and we put Hugh (Bowman) at the trials and Hugh on at Warwick Farm and she ran a PB and we’ve just done the same thing.
“She’s that sort of a filly (a straightforward one),” Cummings continued. “She is a very kind, very willing filly and when you asked her she is very strong. She has an amazing system.
“A win like that obviously makes you think of bigger prospects in the spring.”
Bowman, who has a long association of high profile winners with the Cummings family, delivered the filly to success, with Cummings quick to praise the ride from the ‘best in Australia’.
“He (Bowman) had the horse underneath him and I think he knew that. We discussed it beforehand and he had a very clear idea of what he should be doing at about the half-mile and that’s how it panned out. He’s the best in Australia in my mind and I think he’s proven that again today.
“This is all very surreal,” said Cummings. “I suppose I will come to terms with it in the next few hours, the next few days and maybe the next few months. There is something about this game that makes you want to get up the next day and work harder and prove it again and again.
“While I’m very thankful for the opportunity, I’m thrilled with today’s result. No one really knows what the future holds and all you can do is the best. We’ve worked our butts off. We started from zero, had no horses in the stables and we built that up, day by day, week by week, month by month, and kept believing in ourselves, and here we are.
“I’d like to think that the same ethic will carry us a long way into the future.”
Bowman praised the filly, while he was also proud to deliver a first Group 1 winner for Cummings.
“I knew if I leave her alone and don’t get involved in tactics early, I know she’ll produce late,” the winning rider said.
“I had the support of everyone behind me, and that gives the jockey confidence and I was confident in her and she delivered in spades.
“It means a lot to me (to ride Edward Cummings’ first Group 1 winner). I rode Group 1 winners for Bart Cummings, Anthony Cummings, James Cummings and now Edward. And it’s no surprise to me that the filly has done this and I think the best is still ahead of her.”