Edward Cummings has the favourite for both this year’s Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup but his spring ambitions don’t end in Victoria with the Sydney trainer revealing an audacious campaign to also includes a trip to Japan.
Cummings told Tuesday’s Racing Victoria spring nominations launch that the five-year-old was ‘very likely’ to be nominated for the Japan Cup.
The daughter of Shamus Award’s win in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes qualified her for an AU$4.3 million bonus if she were to win the Japan Cup – on top of the AU$4.4 million winner’s purse – and Cummings said that had been factored into her spring planning.
“It’s definitely worthwhile,” Cummings said.
“But we really won’t know exactly where we stand until probably after the Caulfield Cup and leading into the Melbourne Cup, depending on how she runs.”
The 2400m Group 1 Japan Cup will this year be run on Sunday 27 November, 26 days after the 3200m Melbourne Cup.
With Japan on the radar, Cummings has deliberately planned a light start to the campaign for Duais, who is likely to have two runs in Sydney before rounding out her preparations for the $5 million Caulfield Cup (2400m) in the $1 million Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington on October 1.
“The likely starting point for her is the Winx Stakes in August, more than likely a four-week break into the George Main, which is very similar to what Chris Waller did with Verry Elleegant and also with Winx,” he said.
“It’s just to try and give her that break so that when the whips really start to crack come late October and early November we’ve both got a breadth of work under the belt but also fresh legs.
“We want to make sure we built in some space there so that she hadn’t been over-taxed if that (Japan Cup) became a possibility.”
The Group 1 Winx Stakes (1400m) will be run at Randwick on August 20 with the Group 1 George Main Stakes (1600m) on September 17.
Duais will trial at Warwick Farm on Friday and Cummings said racing fans expect to see a more furnished product when the three-time Group 1 winner returns to the track.
“She’s definitely a more mature animal now; she’s bigger, stronger and more confident and working even a little bit sharper,” he said.
“There’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge, as they say, but the early signs are very good.”