CUMMINGS TO MAKE DERBY DAY TRIAL FOR ALEGRON’S CUP CHANCES
JAMES Cummings will channel the time-honoured traditions of his famous grandfather Bart by running Alegron on Derby Day to gauge whether the VRC St Leger winner deserves to take his place in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.
Alegron, who ran fourth last in the Caulfield Cup, is already guaranteed a spot in the 24 runners of the Melbourne Cup.
But Cummings is no certainty to run the four-year-old gelding next Tuesday unless he gets to the line strongly in the Lexus Archer Stakes (2500m).
“(Bart) taught me to be confident with my horses and if you are trying to win a Melbourne Cup, your horse needs to be supremely fit,” Cummings said.
“That horse (Alegron), to my eye, didn’t run well enough in the Caulfield Cup to turn it around so quickly to be winning the Melbourne Cup.
“I could run the horse (in the Cup) and he might run a niceearning eighth without running him again (on Saturday).
“But at this stage it would be important for him to be running a booming race (in the Archer) before going into a Melbourne Cup, then be ready for the hardest race of his life.”
His grandfather famously ran his Cup hopes on Derby Day as a final pipe-opener for the main event three days later, with the overwhelming majority of his 12 Cup winners following that pathway to success.
Alegron’s second place to Hitotsu in last year’s Victoria Derby still gives his trainer confidence that a return to Flemington – where he won the VRC St Leger on Anzac Day – might spark the horse into action.
“He pulled up well from the Caulfield Cup, which is no surprise because he didn’t do much in the race,” he said. “He got well back in the race and was very flat-footed when the spring went on. He is a handicapper, he needs a mile and a half and he needs the pressure on to take the brilliance out of the pack. But if we can turn him around and resurrect his campaign, it would be good timing because the Melbourne Cup is so close.”