James Cummings adopts patient approach for start of Hong Kong training career

Legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings famously said “patience is the cheapest thing in racing and the least used” and that approach will be adopted by his grandson James when he launches his Hong Kong career.

The newest addition to the city’s elite training ranks, James Cummings almost certainly won’t have a runner at Sunday’s season opener at Sha Tin, with his only entrant Falcon Hunter the sixth reserve for a Class Five 1,200m race.

Cummings hails from one of Australia’s most famous racing families and has achieved remarkable success, including becoming the youngest trainer in Australian racing history to win 50 Group One races by the age of 36.

After eight years as global racing giant Godolphin’s head Australian trainer, the 38-year-old jumped at the chance to train in Hong Kong when approached by the Jockey Club last year.

“I feel like I’ve got a nice team that I’ve imported into Hong Kong, but we’re very new-horse heavy,” Cummings said of his stable, which currently has 42 gallopers.

“So, my owners realise that for us, it will be more about getting through the first quarter of the season with a low number of transfers and therefore we won’t have a lot of runners early.

“What seems to me is a relatively unknown fact is the new trainer in Hong Kong cannot hit the track with horses until July 31, so it has only been a month for me to have horses in training.

“I can do some work with them from June when they come out of quarantine, but it’s no way to train a horse to be rushing to the first meeting if the horse is not ready. I’ve got about a dozen transfers and they would be the horses capable of getting to the track the soonest, but we’re not in a rush.”

While new trainers usually rely on stable transfers for early wins in Hong Kong, Cummings’ current team leans more towards unraced gallopers – known as private purchase griffins – and private purchases, which are imports with race experience.

“It seems to me, peering through the records that every new trainer has a different mission and a different challenge,” Cummings said.

“For me, there’s no retiring trainer so I’ve got to go about buying horses to suit my business. I’ve taken the attitude that if we can find promising PPGs to arrive in Hong Kong with plenty up their sleeve, and balance that out with classy private purchases that have aspirations at a high level, as well as other PPs who are capable of being thereabouts over different distances and can achieve the Class Three bonus.

“I’ve gone out on a limb with advice from some owners and agents on some horses that they have sent to me, and others I have pinpointed myself. A combination of those things has led me to 42 horses as of the end of August and we’re building towards being solid without overflowing.”

Two imports Cummings has high aspirations for are Providence, the winner of this year’s Group One Queensland Derby in Australia, and Group Three Hampton Court Stakes victor Generic.

They will be aimed at Hong Kong’s most prestigious race, the HK$28 million Hong Kong Derby in March.

“They’re beautiful horses, they’ve settled in without any problems and I believe they’ve got the right profiles to have excellent careers in Hong Kong,” Cummings said.