James Cummings saddles first Hong Kong runner at Happy Valley

Fifty-two Group 1 wins before the age of 40 buys a trainer the right to be relaxed. Ask how James Cummings feels to be a day away from his first Hong Kong runner and the answer comes back without a hint of nerves. 

"I haven't thought about it," he says. "It's a process. The whole thing's a process."

He has earned the level of calm. Behind him sit more than 1,500 winners, eight years as Godolphin's head trainer in Australia, the youngest man in Australian history to reach 50 Group 1s, and a surname on racebooks for a century: grandson of Bart, great-grandson of Jim, son of Anthony, brother of Edward.

Of course none of these things help a horse get around a Happy Valley bend but Cummings is more than ready after having more than a year to wait for his first runner in Hong Kong. The trainer has spent that time studying, preparing his team and recruiting horses. 

His first runner is stable transfer Day Day Victory in the Class 4 Kowloon Tong Handicap over 1,000m tonight. 

"Day Day Victory's ready. He's got a lovely owner," Cummings says. "Alexis Badel will ride the horse well. Alexis knows the horse inside out."

Badel has won four times on the gelding and is unfussed by gate 11.

"The course and distance have suited him in the past, and I can only be confident that the horse is going to run well," Badel told the Jockey Club. "We haven't drawn the best gate, but we'll deal with it."

Cummings keeps coming back to the process – both when he reflects on the lead time to get to his first runner, and his expectations now that he is here.

"It's not about this one," he says. "This one came at this time, and it's all part of it. I've got a stable full of horses getting ready for trials. Some aren't far off running themselves."

But the checkpoints started long before a saddle went on ahead of a race. 

"It was nice to get a horse into a box in June. And it was nice to get a horse to the trotting ring, and a horse to the racecourse at the end of July," he says. "All those little markers along the way. All those little moments to tick off, now that it's real."

He has 42 horses in a yard licensed for 70, a big number for a first-year trainer who arrived without the usual leg-up that comes from a retiring trainer. New arrivals typically inherit many of the retiring trainer’s string, and with it a natural flow of transfers and ready-made runners. Cummings got no such handover.

Twenty-nine of Cummings’ roster are yet to race in Hong Kong which means the second half of his season should be stronger than the first.

"We're pumped up about getting started. We're prepared to be patient because we have a stable which is really new horse-heavy," he said. "People should expect to see the strength of our stable towards the second quarter and onwards through the season."

The one concession to sentiment is for the staff, a happy shop from day one. His Bai Sun ceremony at the new stable on August 12 drew a crowd that spilled well beyond the yard, an Australian getting stuck into a Hong Kong tradition with the enthusiasm of somebody who intends to stay.

"I know my team are looking forward to having a runner, because it's important to get to the races. They love it," he says. "They're a great bunch of guys. They've got some lovely horses on their hands, so they're working very hard, and they'll get their just rewards."

"We will manage expectations, focus on the process.” 

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓