Business as usual for Cummings partnership

Saturday 14 December 2013, 4:49pm

Any rift between James Cummings and his famous grandfather Bart is well and truly buried.

James, on hand to see The Peak win at Flemington on Saturday, said the dispute which reportedlly threatened his training partnership with Bart, was in the past.

"It was a mountain out of a molehill," he said.

He said he would be heading out to his grandfather's Princes Farm on Sunday for an early Christmas lunch.

Cummings, who worked as a foreman for his grandfather before stepping up as a co-trainer in August, was more interested in talking about a new stable set-up at Flemington after the sale of Bart's famous Saintly Place to developers.

He said moving away was difficult for some people in his stable but you have to plan for the future.

"I've got an owner in Sydney with an $800 bill on his desk because he had to float his horses to Flemington every day during Melbourne Cup week," Cummings said.

He said there would be no problems at the new complex on the racecourse with plenty of room to expand.

"We might double the stable - there is plenty of opportunity in this country," he said.

He said leading Sydney trainer Chris Waller gave him some good advice when he was applying for his trainer's licence.

"He said there is no problem having an interstate stable, you just have to have people you trust, a GPS on all your horses and everything flows the same because it is the same system," Cummings said.

The Peak, who won five times from seven races in Hong Kong last year when trained by John Size, notched his first win for the Cummings stable in his five outings in Australia.

He was positioned nicely behind the leaders in the Johnstaff Projects Handicap (1410m) with top apprentice Chad Schofield pulling The Peak ($4) out from a rail position in the straight to race past Amethon ($16) to win by a length and a half with Eraset ($18) running home for third.

"It's great to get a winner at Flemington with a horse that's come from the best trainer in the world to a stable that is keen to get back to be one of the top stables in Australia," Cummings said.

He said he would become a more regular visitor to Melbourne, especially if his horses keep winning.

– AAP

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