Ten years after James Cummings celebrated his first Group One win alongside his legendary grandfather Bart, he has brought up his 50th in the same race, producing Broadsiding for an historic Golden Rose victory.
The champion juvenile became the first horse to win the Golden Rose (1400m) first-up, unleashing his trademark whirlwind finish to narrowly deny stablemate Traffic Warden in a thrilling four-way drive to the line.
Cummings paid tribute to his staff for their efforts in getting the two colts to their first target in top order, before confirming Broadsiding would now head to the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) in Melbourne, while Traffic Warden firmed as Godolphin’s top seed for its Everest slot.
“It takes a village to run a racing stable and it doesn’t matter if it’s Leilani Lodge from ten years ago or Godolphin now,” Cummings said.
“I’ve got three great stables that are able to get their fingerprints all over horses like these. I owe it to them.
“They are the backbone, they are the guts of what we are trying to achieve and two big colts today in a proper race, letting down to fight it out in a race like the Golden Rose is a huge moment.”
Much had been made of Broadsiding’s task to win the race fresh, a feat no horse had managed.
However, Cummings played down the achievement and said it was simply the right formula for the three-year-old.
“That was so overblown. This race has been around five minutes,” he said.
“It hasn’t been done before, well it’s been done now. I had no trouble getting Anamoe ready for a Winx Stakes over seven furlongs first-up. Plenty of good horses can do that.
“The thing is, he’s by Too Darn Hot, he’s a European-bred horse with a European style, and chasing over six furlongs would not have been his go. He was in the right race fresh up and that’s just our stable having the confidence to know our horses.”
Broadsiding took James Mcdonald to 99 Group 1 wins and left the hoop marvelling at his development from his first success in the Fernhill Handicap during the autumn.
“The moment I sat on him in the Fernhill, to see his development from race to race to race is just incredible,” McDonald said.
“He hasn’t gone up step by step, he’s skipped a couple.
“He was feeling the pinch 100 (metres) from home and just the fighting qualities in this horse, the turn of foot, the will to win, he’s just a marvellous horse.”
After settling worse than midfield, Broadsiding ($2.15 fav) motored late to score by a head over Traffic Warden ($6.50) with Mayfair ($21) another long head away, just in front of Tulloch Lodge stablemate Storm Boy ($5) in fourth.
Cummings also confirmed Traffic Warden was front and centre for Godolphin’s Everest slot, although with the caveat that the colt needed to have something in the tank for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes later in the spring.
“No doubt he is our premier elect for The Everest,” Cummings said.
“The transparent statement is, we’ve got to be sure that if we go to The Everest, we’ve got a horse ready to go to the Coolmore still and that is going to be the plan.”
Storm Boy is also in the mix for Everest consideration with co-trainer Adrian Bott beginning to think he may be a sprinter, rather than a miler.
“Storm Boy ran well and it seems 1200m just might be his sweet spot,” Bott said.
“We will have a good think about where we go next but The Everest is certainly an option.”