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LEGENDS WE LOST IN 2015: Bart Cummings

Bart Cummings
Expert
26th December, 2015
0

Cups King Bart Cummings died peacefully in his sleep overnight, aged 87.

Bart trained a record 12 Melbourne Cup winners, seven more than the next best Lee Freedman, in addition to seven Caulfield Cup winners, nine VRC Oaks, eight Newmarkets, five Cox Plates, and four Golden Slippers among his 266 Group 1 winners, and 762 Stakes champions.

Bart was an extraordinarily gifted horse trainer, and a damn good bloke with a whimsical sense of humour.

Especially as a medico once told him as a young bloke to stay away from horses and hay because he was allergic to both.

In a long interview five years ago for my “Green and Gold Greats” series on ABC NewsRadio, Bart told me he sought other opinions until he found a medico who didn’t mention horses or hay.

Just as well, or a future icon of Australian sport would have been lost before he had a chance to prove himself.

His office at his Sydney stables was indicative of the man.

It was cluttered with fascinating memorabilia all round the four walls, on a secondary table, and on the floor, and all the space that was left was Bart’s desk that was cluttered as well, and a chair for me to sit on.

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I felt as though I was surrounded by history that demanded questions to be asked, but Bart’s time was precious so we got on with the interview.

Bart was a fascinating bloke with a twinkle in his eye as he spoke beneath those huge eyebrows.

His odd quips were just like Jack Gibson, the great rugby league coach.

Droll is probably a better description for them both.

I asked Bart about his father Jim who rode his horse over 1000 miles to Adelaide to keep a promise to himself to be a champion racehorse trainer.

“Don’t know, wasn’t around at the time,” was Bart’s impish reply.

But Bart was around as a strapper when his father trained Comic Court to win the 1950 Melbourne Cup in an Australasian record time of 3 minutes 19.5 seconds.

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Bart sure liked the taste of that victory.

He secured his first trainer’s licence in 1953, won his first race in 1958, and he was on his way to becoming an Australian sporting icon.

But it wasn’t just his success as a trainer, although the owners he worked for loved that best, it was more that Bart Cummins was a wonderful ambassador for the Sport of Kings.

And he moved just as freely among royalty as he did with the general public.

Everybody loved him, he was that sort of bloke.

He will be sorely missed, men like Bart Cummins are so rare they only surface every generation or two.

This obituary of Bart Cummings was originally posted here

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