FRESH from his feature race double last Saturday at Melbourne's first group 1 meeting of the season, trainer Anthony Cummings was busy yesterday planning a three-pronged attack for Friday night's group 1 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley, reports The Age.The report adds: Stirring gallops yesterday morning at Moonee Valley by the entires Solo Flyer and Duporth convinced Cummings they should join last Saturday's group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes winner Turffontein in the $500,000 sprint.Solo Flyer a
FRESH from his feature race double last Saturday at Melbourne's first group 1 meeting of the season, trainer Anthony Cummings was busy yesterday planning a three-pronged attack for Friday night's group 1 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley, reports The Age.
The report adds: Stirring gallops yesterday morning at Moonee Valley by the entires Solo Flyer and Duporth convinced Cummings they should join last Saturday's group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes winner Turffontein in the $500,000 sprint.
Solo Flyer and Duporth sprinted home smartly at the end of their work in 11.68 seconds for the final 200 metres, a time bettered by only one of the other 25 horses to take advantage of the grass track. Gai Waterhouse's flier Swift Alliance, who is also Manikato Stakes-bound, earlier dashed home in 11.3.
Cummings does not only have eyes for the major Melbourne sprints. He also plans to gang-tackle the Caulfield Cup and has four, possibly five, horses capable of making the final line-up.
''I've been putting a team together for a while for this carnival and Saturday certainly was a nice way to get the ball rolling,'' said the Randwick-based Cummings, who himself is somewhat scratchy in his action as he recovers from a hip replacement. I've 15 horses here [Caulfield stables] and we've got another 10 or so that are earmarked [to come].''