James Cummings trained his first winner in Hong Kong when Grand Eagle won at Sha Tin on Monday, a breakthrough that came for one of the city’s all-time great trainers, John Moore.
Raced by Moore’s Go Racing Syndicate, the four-year-old quickened under Jerry Chau Chun-lok to win the Class 3 Lek Yuen Handicap (1200m), beating 2027 Four-year-old Classic Series hopeful Mr Incredible. It was Cummings’ 12th runner in Hong Kong and his first winner outside Australia.
“My first international race winner as a horse trainer. I’ve trained a few winners in my time, thankfully, and had the opportunity, but to do it for the first time on foreign soil is quite a unique feeling,” said Cummings, the grandson of 12-time Melbourne Cup winner Bart Cummings.
Moore, Hong Kong’s winningest trainer with 1,734 victories, seven championships and 33 Group 1 wins, retired at the end of the 2019-20 season and returned as an owner in 2024.
“A lovely horse for a lovely group of connections. John Moore and George Moore have got a great eye for a horse, and Grand Eagle is just another lovely individual that they’ve thankfully entrusted me with the care of,” Cummings said. “I’ve had a couple of really good long talks with John, not only about Grand Eagle, but about Hong Kong in general and about how to go about running your own business.”
“And it’s an extra thing about Hong Kong that’s probably undervalued, is that the collegiate nature of the trainers here is such that a lot of the trainers are actually happy to help,” he said.
Cummings has taken a leaf out of Moore’s book by chasing Private Purchase (PP) imports, the tried horses that have qualified through big races in Australia and Europe, including 2026 Queensland Derby winner Providence, which will start off a rating of 83, and G3 Hampton Court Stakes winner Generic, rated 82. The imports should make him a serious player in the 2027 Hong Kong Derby, a race Moore won six times.
Chau, last season’s Tony Cruz Award winner, brought up his second winner of the day after Shannon Glow.
“Jerry Chau, to me, is like a local Hugh Bowman. He has good hands, a patient disposition,” Cummings said. “I spent a lot of time watching the races in Hong Kong more closely last season, and I like his style. So I was very keen to see him link up with a horse like Grand Eagle because I thought it was just what the doctor ordered.
“I’d be happy to throw him the silks all throughout the year.”
Grand Eagle had two unplaced starts for David Eustace last season before joining Cummings, and finished eighth first-up for his new trainer on October 4.
“I believe the horse had a lot of hidden merit in his first-up effort, and he vindicated that today,” Cummings said, adding he suspects “there’s a little bit more to come with this horse.”
Cummings said he had embraced the scrutiny that comes with training in a city that follows racing so closely.
“I find that training in Hong Kong has been really quite enjoyable, because I can get the sense that Hong Kong’s a bit of a city full of analysts, and I don’t mind that,” he said. “I actually quite enjoy the analysis of horse racing.”
He also credited his staff.
“I’ve got a great team,” he said. “The guys in the stable are amazingly dedicated, and they’re a pleasure to work with each and every day.”
