Shaun Dwyer, a disciple of Bart Cummings's training methods without ever knowing the real secrets of his success, is still looking for his next “good horse” - even with retirement on his mind.
Anthony Cummings often says his father taught him everything he knows about racehorses but not everything one of Australia’s greatest trainers knew.
It’s a quote that has become part of Australian racing folklore, providing an insight into Bart Cummings's legendary career.
For the man who millions of Australians knew simply as the ‘Cups King’, the most identifiable face of the Melbourne Cup liked to keep some things to himself.
The art of fine-tuning a record 12 Melbourne Cup winners was often a triumph for instinct rather than anything out of a training manual.
Anthony's perspective on his father's ways resonates with many who used their time with Cummings on the road to forging their own training careers.
Trainers such as Shaun Dwyer.
Arriving at Leilani Lodge during the era of Saintly, Dane Ripper, Catalan Opening and Danendri, Dwyer confessed he left none the wiser about the subtle nature of the master’s finishing touches.
As much as Dwyer is grateful for the opportunity to serve as a foreman in one of the world’s most decorated stables, Cummings's aura paradoxically casts a long shadow over his own career.
“I’ve often told my wife that sometimes I wish I never worked for him,” Dwyer told The Straight.
“You just cannot emulate it. It doesn't matter how much you think about it.
“That last 10 or 15 per cent on a horse, he was just freakish at.
“There’s never been a greater trainer than Bart Cummings on this planet.”
Three years since returning to his native Queensland after training in Victoria and two decades after setting his highly regarded stayer Pacific Dancer on a Melbourne Cup course, Dwyer will be trying to claim some belated winter carnival riches during the Sunshine Coast Turf Club’s premier meeting of the season on Saturday.
“There’s never been a greater trainer than Bart Cummings on this planet.”
Shaun Dwyer
On the 20-year anniversary of Pacific Dancer running third in the Caloundra Cup to lay the foundation for a Melbourne Cup bid that came unstuck on a rain-affected track, Dwyer has a $1500 online purchase running in the Group 3 Winx Guineas.
Becamo is a long way from being the best horse Dwyer has put a bridle on but he has seen enough in the three-year-old he once described as a “weedy bastard” to say he deserves a chance to give the trainer his most significant result since quitting his Bendigo stable in 2021.
Dwyer spent 13 years training at Bendigo, a few more than he wanted to, as his sharp sprinter Miss Leonidas put plans on hold when she marched all the way through the classes to a Group 2 win and narrow Group 1 defeat in The Galaxy.
Miss Leonidas’ retirement and the emergence of stables that started training in huge numbers, making it hard to compete, convinced Dwyer that his time in Victoria was over.
Dealing with Bendigo’s brutal winter mornings clinched the deal.
“I stayed about two years longer than I was going to because I ended up with a good little mare called Miss Leonidas.
“Met some really good people and it was all worth the trip apart from the cold.
“I grew up in Mackay in north Queensland. I don't know whether I was just getting older or not, but in the end even the locals and their mates were saying it's bloody cold.
“You can get sick of that pretty quickly.”
Dwyer collected the two Group 1 victories of his career when he was domiciled in Queensland with his Magic Millions winner Regimental Gal claiming the Lightning Stakes-Australia Stakes double in Melbourne in 2004.
But in a nod to his former boss, it was his pursuit of the Melbourne Cup that was the inspiration for his relocation to Bendigo where he kept up to 75 horses in training.
“Pacific Dancer, he was up to winning a Melbourne Cup, that horse,” Dwyer said.
“But winning the Geelong Cup ruined him. He ran the third fastest time in history.
“I thought my best chance of getting another Melbourne Cup horse was to move to Victoria but it didn’t work out.”
Miss Leonidas was simply too fast in the Caulfield Sprint. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wdNKNbwpYs
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 19, 2019
Dwyer trains a small team of racehorses at Corbould Park, starts at 2am and has already put in two hours around the stables before his staff arrive.
It’s a routine he keeps with one eye on life after racing and the issues that are confronting the sport.
“It faces its challenges but I really think, in a lot of ways, they (administrators) have lost their way a little bit as far as owners and the horses go,” he said.
“I think they're the two most important things in the game. But, anyway, it's still going, and we're still getting around and trying to find a good horse.
“I'm sort of ready to retire, actually, but I bought a few yearlings last year, so I've got to do that. I've got three or four nice horses in there, but my wife and I are both ready to retire.
“Racing does put a prison wall around you in a lot of ways, unless you're highly successful and you can take a bloody month’s holiday around the world or whatever you want to do.
“But for the run-of-the-mill trainer, it's a pretty big old ride.”
