With a few regrets and no time for a holiday, James Cummings is ready to go his own way

Much has changed in the training landscape since James Cummings last ran a stable in his own right, but as he tells Matt Stewart, he is galloping into his next chapter with the same energy as the day he zipped up the Godolphin jacket for the first time.

It reads like a case of the eight-year itch.

Godolphin’s Australian operation, a one-time giant now usurped by even bigger giants, has never been a swinging door but tenures have timed out.

A handful of years and a handshake.

James Cummings will remain a trainer of Godolphin horses – how many, he doesn’t yet know – but his eight years is up as the global outfit changes up its Australasian operation.

It is a little ambiguous who got the itch and pulled the trigger; Godolphin or 37-year-old Cummings. It may have been neither, just a fork in the road.

But it is a split that has invited speculation.

In 2013, Peter Snowden quit after six years to go it alone with his son Paul. Snowden was straight-forward about it; it had been great, but it was time to find his own feet.

Snowden hinted there was something ultimately unsatisfying in being a cog in someone else’s machine, albeit one as coveted as Godolphin.

John O’Shea took over and quit in 2017 after three years. O’Shea, the former rugby league player who wore his heart on his sleeve, was an interesting appointment. Ultimately, he and Henry Plumptre, the urbane British-born head of Godolphin’s Australian affairs, didn’t see eye to eye.

On his departure, O’Shea also hinted at a desire to no longer be a kept man.

Cummings, the polite, uni-educated, blue-blood grandson of Bart and already a trainer of four Group One winners, was an attractive successor.

There were peaks and troughs along the way, par for the course when piloting a squadron fuelled by home-breds. If the stallions fail, so does the trainer. “There’s no doubt you can get on great runs, real purple patches, with homebred horses when everything clicks. But yes, it works both ways,” Cummings tells The Straight.

Cummings mostly roared along, rounding off his Godolphin CV with 48 Group One winners, eight colts successfully delivered to stud and a bona fide “perfect project” in Anamoe, the star entire Cummings guided astutely through a spring carnival that mirrored his grandfather’s famous spring with So You Think.

Both horses suffered just one defeat in those spring romps.

Anamoe was beaten just once the following autumn and is now among the celebrated young stallions on the Darley (Godolphin’s breeding arm) roster.

Another is Too Darn Hot, the imported stallion who set the Southern Hemisphere alight and delivered Godolphin Broadsiding, the champion two-year-old and high class three-year-old who never quite filled Anamoe’s shoes but took the edge off a lean patch for the Blue Army.

Godolphin’s decision to change course in what had been an extremely lucrative hunting ground is a little perplexing, although the cost of operating a training business have never been as high. An expensive legal battle over land tax which ended in the ATO’s favour in the High Court hasn’t helped the balance sheet.

In announcing the change of the relationship with Cummings, Godolphin Australia managing director Andy Makiv said the private training model had been “very successful” but said diversification would give “greater business agility.”

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Cummings’ fortunes on the Sydney premiership list, courtesy of shifting sands beyond his control, led for some months to speculation about his future.

The scoreboard was waning.

For five successive seasons from 2017/18, Cummings ran second to Chris Waller in Sydney’s metro training premierships, but by increasing deficits. Last season, others rose up and relegated Cummings to fourth with 51 wins. This season Cummings is 10th with 23 winners. He has had less than 20 per cent of the runners that Waller has had.

Waller, Neasham/Archibald, Ciaron Maher and Bjorn Baker have become bigger and stronger as Godolphin remained in a structured holding pattern.

Sometimes the fortunes of an individual entrusted with an empire come down to just one horse. Had Broadsiding won the Cox Plate as a three-year-old, or bowed out with victory in the All Aged, the season’s KPI’s would have looked glossier.

Some will speculate that a trigger had been pulled, whether Cummings or Godolphin got the eight-year itch and acted first, but precedent, and the prevailing environment says it was simply time.

“The time was simply right for me to move out on my own. It’s a fresh start going public, an exciting new venture. As a trainer, it’s just part of the journey,” Cummings said.

“I can tell you one thing; I’m going to be busy trying to set myself up again. There will be no holiday.”

Cummings is now focused on a rebuild that will be assisted by Godolphin. Cummings won the Golden Rose in 2014 while in partnership with his grandfather.

Hallowed Crown was owned by the grandfather of Cummings’ wife, Monica, San Miguel beer baron and Gooree racing supremo, Eduardo Cojuangco, who also owned Cummings’ Victoria Derby winner Prized Icon.

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While coy, Cummings said he hoped to rekindle relationships with former clients. Cojuangco died in 2020 but Gooree gallops on and appears ready for a revival.

Cummings resumes life as a public trainer on August 1.

He will retain the Crown Lodge boxes at Flemington and would love to secure his late grandfather’s Leilani Lodge at Randwick. He and Bart briefly trained there as partners, then James’ father Anthony, who was forced to relinquish them earlier this year because the business went into liquidation.

Family ties count for little in the scramble for coveted Randwick boxes. It is believed that Ciaron Maher and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have also both made applications to the ATC for Leilani Lodge.

Cummings believes his start-up will be robust enough to facilitate horses in both Melbourne and Sydney “and it gives us an advantage, a footprint in both states.”

“There’s still a lot to play out but by the end of July, I will be a public trainer. (As for clients) all options are open and I’m looking forward to gaining support from anyone happy to invest in me,” he said.

Cummings admits the benchmarks at Godolphin had mostly been internal. He and the Blue Army paid minimal attention to emerging threats within the training ranks.

“Realistically, our goal was to put stallions on the roster and produce stakes winning fillies who would be then sent to our stallions coming through,” he said. “We put eight stallions on the roster and had 50 Group Ones. I think that’s pretty solid.

“We haven’t been really focused on what was happening on the periphery but it has been interesting. Things have changed. Others have got bigger and ours was then nowhere near the biggest.”

Just as Snowden reflected proudly on a phenomenal streak with Godolphin (then Darley) two-year-olds, and O’Shea proudly delivered Hartnell to be humbled by Winx, Cummings says “there have been so many wonderful afternoons.”

“It’s pretty easy to fall back on the big days; a Group One double on Golden Slipper Day (2019, Kiamichi in the Slipper, Avilius in the Ranvet), three winners Doncaster Day, three winners Derby Day in Melbourne, every race from the Galaxy to the Cox Plate,” he said.

“Winning Group Ones in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth … but most rewarding of all was bringing a great team of people along for the journey. That was more rewarding than any of the big wins.

Five unanswered questions after James Cummings and Godolphin split

The decision that James Cummings would step away from his exclusive training relationship with Godolphin has been rumoured for some time, but while the move has now been confirmed it still leaves several questions as to the plans of both the trainer himself and Godolphin.

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“Regrets? A few. Not being able to get a horse overseas, that was one, but there is still plenty of time.”

Cummings is galloping into his next chapter with the same energy as the day he zipped up the Godolphin jacket for the first time.

“Was I riddled with doubt and trepidation when I first started? No, to be honest. I’d already won four Group Ones. I had some momentum, I just wanted to get straight into it. And that’s how I feel now,” he said.