Cummings and Tesio

Lessons from the Masters

 

 

James Bartholomew ‘Bart’ Cummings, is arguably Australia’s greatest ever racehorse trainer. He has trained the winners of 268 Group 1 races, 776 stakes races and 12 Melbourne Cups. He was named a National Treasure, a member of the Order of Australia, and an inductee into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the Racing Hall of Fame.

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He lived his life surrounded by horses. He was the son of a trainer, the father of a trainer, and the grandfather of trainers.

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But all any trainer can do is get the best out of his horses, and not every horse is capable of winning a stakes race, a Group 1 or a Melbourne Cup. So how was it that JB Cummings enjoyed such a long career of extraordinary success on the track?

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By his own admission, Cummings often disregarded both conformation and type when identifying subsequent winners. He described his great champion, Galilee, as a yearling, as ‘awkward’, ‘pigeon toed’, with ‘lopsided front legs’ and an ‘ungainly walk’. He also said he was throwing ‘his offside foreleg out at an angle’ and was ‘distinctly pigeon toed.’ Yet Galilee rewrote record books…

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Perhaps the biggest reason Cummings set himself apart and above, was his attention to both training and pedigree, much akin to his great Italian counterpart, Frederico Tesio. But while Tesio applied his knowledge of pedigree to the breeding barn, Cummings applied his to the sales ring. And while Tesio targeted the winning post of the Derby, Cummings looked to the ‘first Tuesday in November’ as his measure of success.

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Frederico Tesio is widely regarded as the master of thoroughbred matings. He has been described as a ‘breeding wizard’ and the ‘most revered breeder in thoroughbred history’.

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No other breeder has changed the shape of modern breeding and racing as has Tesio. He bred and trained the winners of 22 Italian Derbies, 11 Oaks, 18 St Legers, 22 Gran Premio di Milanos, a dual Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, a King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner, a Grand Prix de Paris winner, a Coronation Cup winner, an Ascot Gold Cup winner, a Goodwood Cup winner, a Italian 2,000 Guineas winner, English Derby & St Leger winners, and the list goes on…

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Like Cummings, Tesio looked away from conventional breeding strategies. He purchased non-winning, unfashionable mares and mated them to mediocre stallions. In doing so, he bred 5 unbeaten champions and multiple Group 1 winners.

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Both Cummings and Tesio relied heavily on their knowledge of pedigree to breed or identify future champions. They both had ravenous appetites for knowledge, they looked to nicks, crosses and female families, and they forgave poor conformation and the race record of the dam.

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In his book, ‘Breeding The Racehorse’ Tesio makes reference to three successful breeding nicks, that of Bend Or and Macaroni, Galopin and Hampton, and Isonomy and Hermit, that have each ‘been found to give their best results when crossed with each other.’

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He describes using these nicks to breed Guido Reni, his first Derby winner. Tesio said he went to England in 1904 to purchase a granddaughter of Isonomy to mate with a descendent of Hermit, the ‘mediocre stallion’ standing in Italy named, Melanion.

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The mating of Melanion with non-winner, Jenny Hampton, included two nicks, that of Isonomy/Hermit and Galopin/Hampton and gave Tesio his ‘first great satisfaction as a breeder’ to win the 1911 Italian Derby.

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Jenny Hampton traced to Ghuznee by Pantaloon, the unbeaten winner of the Epson Oaks and the Coronation Stakes.

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Indeed, throughout his career, Tesio continued to adhere to nicks and crosses as his primary strategy to produce outstanding racehorses including the remarkably similarly bred, unbeaten champions, Nearco and Ribot.

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Tesio crafted Nearco’s pedigree over two generations with the purchase of Catnip, a weedy, undersized mare from the Newmarket sales in 1915. She has won just one race from nine starts but was well bred, with both parents’ classic winners and her immediate ancestors all top racehorses.

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Catnip was by Spearmint out of Sibola by The Sailor Prince. In the same way that he had previously purchased Jenny Hampton for her line of Isonomy, Tesio bought Catnip for her strain of Spearmint, and for a fee of 75 guineas, she returned to Italy where she bred 8 foals.

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The most important of those foals was Nogara, the champion filly of her year in Italy, winning 13 races including the One Thousand Guineas, the Two Thousand Guineas, the Premio Bimbi and the Criterium Nazionale. 

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Nogara was by Havresac out of Catnip by Spearmint, a son of Carbine. When bred to Pharos in 1934, Nogara foaled Nearco, a brown colt who was unbeaten on the race track and whose influence in the breeding barn was boundless.

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Nearco in turn sired Nearctic, the sire of Northern Dancer; Nasrullah, the sire of Bold Ruler, and Nasrullah’s three-quarter brother, Royal Charger, the sire of Turn-To.  

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In his stud career, as on the racetrack, there is no question that Nearco was the supreme influence in international racing and breeding in the latter part of the twentieth century.

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13 years later, Tesio returned to the combination of Pharos, Havresac and Carbine to breed another unbeaten star of the turf, Ribot, arguably the best horse of the twentieth century.

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Ribot was by Tenerani out of Romanella, a granddaughter of Pharos. His sire was a grandson of the unbeaten Cavaliere D’Arpino, the horse Tesio had previously described as the best he had bred.

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Cavaliere D’Arpino was by Havresac, and traced to Chute, by Carbine. So, the pedigree of Cavaliere D’Arpino carried the identical Havresac over Carbine cross Tesio used to breed Nogara.

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With the mating of Romanella, a granddaughter of Pharos, to Tenerani, the grandson of Cavaliere D’Arpino, Tesio created the same combination of Pharos, Havresac and Carbine he had previously used to produce his champion, Nearco.

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Sadly, Tesio died two months before Ribot had his first outing in Milan in 1954. He won that race, and his next 15, over three seasons, in three countries, at distances from five furlongs to 15 furlongs, and on going which ranged from hard to heavy.

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Like Nearco, Ribot was also an outstanding success at stud, where his winners came in a variety of shapes and sizes and rarely showed any unwillingness in a finish.

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And his sons also did well as stallions, including Latin Lover, whose three wins included the Manchester Cup. Latin Lover stood in Australia where he sired Rain Lover, the first horse for 100 years to win the Melbourne Cup two years in succession in 1968 and 1969.

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It was 18 years earlier that JB Cummings had had his first taste of Melbourne Cup glory when he strapped Comic Court for his father Jim. Jim Cummings had trained the full brother, Comic Prince, for 20 wins and took out an option to acquire the subsequent Melbourne Cup winner.

 

The brothers were by Powerscourt out of Witty Maid, a mare who traced to fourth dam, Smoky, by The Welkin.

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It is doubtful that Bart Cummings were unaware of the role The Welkin had played in the pedigrees of previous Melbourne Cup winners.

 

The winner of 6 of 23 races including the Buckenham Stakes, July Handicap and Royal Stakes, The Welkin was imported into Australia, and became a prolific sire of winners including the outstanding champion, Gloaming.

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In 1927, Trivalve had won the AJC Derby, VRC Derby and Melbourne Cup. He was by Cyklon out of Trey, by The Welkin.  And from the same family, Hall Mark, saluted in the 1933 Melbourne Cup, having also won the AJC Derby and VRC Derby. Hall Marks 2nd dam was a full sister to Trey, both daughters of The Welkin. And thirteen years later, Gatum Gatum won the 1963 Melbourne Cup, sharing the same 4th dam, Smoky, by The Welkin, as carried by Comic Court.

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However, with The Welkin disappearing further back into pedigrees, Cummings soon looked elsewhere to achieve his first Melbourne Cup win in his own right.

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In 1960, Cummings had purchased The Dip as a yearling from New Zealand. He was the winner of 10 races including the AJC Metropolitan Hcp, Chipping Norton Stks, Miller’s Lager Hcp and the SAJC Labour Day Cup. He ran fifth in the 1962 Melbourne Cup.

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The Dip was by Le Filou out of the non-winner, Cuddlesome, by Red Mars.

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Le Filou had been secured for stud duties to New Zealand for just 500 guineas due to his unfashionable French outcross pedigree, but in time he proved to be one of the great outcross influences whose stock won an extraordinary stream of Cups, classics, weight-for-age and handicaps.

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At that time, a nick was emerging for Le Filou with mares carrying Red Mars and in 1963, Cummings returned to New Zealand hoping to buy The Dip’s yearling full sister. However, he could only manage to secure her through a lease agreement and he returned to Adelaide with the small, lightly framed chestnut, later named Light Fingers.

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On the track, Light Fingers surpassed all expectations with 15 wins from thirty-three starts and $109,470 in stakes. Her wins included the 1965 Melbourne Cup, VRC Oaks and AJC Oaks.

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Like Tesio’s first Derby winner, Cummings first Melbourne Cup winner, Light Fingers, also traced to Ghuznee by Pantaloon.

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In 1966 Light Fingers ran second in the Melbourne Cup behind another Cummings runner, Galilee. Purchased as a yearling in New Zealand in 1964, Galilee was described as a ‘cripple’ having an awkward action and unseemly conformation.

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But if ever there was a horse that points to the value Cummings placed on pedigree in his quest for a Melbourne Cup winner, that horse must surely be Galilee.

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Cummings says he purchased the unlikely champion on the basis of looking at the dam’s pedigree and noting what proportion of winners she has produced. By his own admission, consideration of ‘type’ was not a factor.

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However, it can be no coincidence that Galilee descended from the family as Sometime, the horse who had previously given Cummings victories in the South Australia St Ledger, Guineas and many weight-for-age races. Sometime accrued earnings of over $86,000.

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Sometime was by Summertime out of Nereid by Neptune. Nereid, traced to Stardancer by Martian out of Stepdancer. Stardancer was a full sister to Warstep, the champion money earner of the 1914-15 season who briefly held the record for career earnings for a mare. Warstep won every great staying race in New Zealand, often with the added impost of great weight.

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Another sister, Warlove, won the New Zealand Oaks in 1919 and brother, Wardancer, took the Dunedin Guineas in 1916.

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Stardancer won the 1912 CJC Stewards Handicap and was runner up in the CJC New Zealand Oaks. She later produced Auckland Cup winner, Starland and New Zealand Oaks winner, Starmist.

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So, it was to the family of Sometime that Cummings looked to when purchasing Galilee, a colt by Alcimedes out of Galston by Balloch. Galston was a non-winner, having been placed at her only run as a two-year-old and then retired. Galston’s dam was Nereid.

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The ‘cripple’ won 18 of 36 starts including the Melbourne Cup, CB Fisher Plate, Queen’s Plate, Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, VATC Caulfield Cup, Toorak Handicap, Memsie Stakes, AJC Sydney Cup and Autumn Stakes.

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When he won the Melbourne Cup in 1966, Cummings became the first man ever to train first and second in the Melbourne Cup for two years running.

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Galilee followed that win four days later with another in the weight-for-age Fisher Plate at 2400 meters. In that race, he defeated the reigning weight-for-age champion, Tobin Bronze, with ease and thwarted the attempt of jockey, Jim Johnson to make a clean sweep of the Melbourne weight-for-age races that Spring.

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He was the first horse since the second world war to win the Toorak Hcp, Caulfield Cup, Melbourne Cup and Fisher Plate in one season and the sixth horse to win the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in the same year.

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In 1967, Cummings produced another Melbourne Cup winner carrying the Le Filou, Red Mars nick.

 

Red Handed was also by Le Filou out of Red Might by Red Mars. He had a club foot, paralyzed ear and a ‘head like a violin case’, but was the winner of 8 other races including the SAJC Queens Cup, Adelaide RC Alderman Cup and the Sir Stanley Murray Hcp.

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And again, Cummings went back to the same nick with a horse who promised much but was destined to go down in history as the Melbourne Cup winner that ‘might have been’. Cummings declared he was ‘as confident as he had ever been,’ of a Cup win with Big Philou, however, the horse was ‘got-at’ before the race and was scratched on the day.

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Big Philou was by Le Filou and traced to Cuddlesome by Red Mars.

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So, the lessons from Cummings and Tesio are revealed in the horses they purchased, bred and trained.

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Their horses tell the story of two men who looked to pedigree as their primary strategy to acquire the champions they were able to nurture as elite trainers. Their horses tell the story of the nicks, crosses and female families that both looked to repeatedly when breeding and buying, and how that knowledge raised them up to a lofty place in the history of the thoroughbred racehorse.

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But these few lessons are just the beginning, and so very much more is to be learned from the study of these two extraordinary lives defined by so many great horses.

 

A Postscript:

On the 14th September 2011, Vegas Showgirl delivered a pretty bay filly to the cover of Street Cry. The filly went through the ring at the 2013 Magic Millions Yearling Sale and was knocked down to Magic Bloodstock for the bargain price of $230,000.

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Sent to trainer, Chris Waller, the filly was named Winx and over the following four years astounded the racing world with 33 consecutive wins, including 25 at Group 1 level and at distances from 1300m to 2200m. Winx retired with prizemoney exceeding $26 million.

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I cannot help but wonder whether JB Cummings had his eye on that Street Cry filly as she went through the sales ring that day, and if he had managed to secure her, whether he could have resisted the temptation to stretch her out over 3200m one Tuesday afternoon, early in November…..after all, Winx traces back to the family of Stardancer by Martian out of Stepdancer that Cummings knew so well and had given him the wonderful Sometime and Galilee all those years before…