What a trainer!

Australia
November 5, 2008 10:10pm CST
Australia has one of the great races in the world, the Melbourne Cup, a group 1 race over 2 miles worth $3 million plus to the winner. It attracts top entries from England, Ireland and New Zealand. There are many great stories about this race, but the story from Tuesday's running is one of the greatest. The winning trainer turns 81 this week, and that alone would be a story. He trained his frist starter in this race 50 years ago. Tuesday's winner was his twelfth winner of the race. Twelve. The next best is 4 winners trained by arguably Australia's leading trainer at the mmoment, and three of those were the one horse. Bart Cummings has been a household name among staying cirles around the world for decades because of his exploits in this race, and why wouldn't it be. He is already setting horses for a chance at a baker's dozen, and you have to wonder how long the old master will be when he trains his last. Lash
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1 response
sharra1
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
6 Nov 08
That is an amazing record, and to be still training horses at 81 is quite an achievement. I know how hard it is to win that race and to have management it 12 times is exceptional. He must have a knack to picking good horses as well as being a great trainer. The fact that he is still doing it at 81 is clear evidence that he is doing something he loves as well as something he is good at. I think it would be wonderful to be able to work at at job that you love so much. I think it is extremely rare and he must have a real connection with horses.
grandpa_lash
@grandpa_lash (5225)
• Australia
8 Nov 08
And here is an update. The ultimate for any trainer is to train the winners of Group One races, which feature the cream of the cream. Today, 5 days after the Melbourne Cup, the old master trained his 251st Group One winner. That's an average of 5 per year, which would make any trainer proud, but to do that every year over a fifty year career is just astonishing. Lash
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