'Cups King' Bart Cummings Dies at 87

Legendary Australian trainer Bart Cummings, who conditioned a record 12 Melbourne Cup (Aus-I) winners in career spanning six decades, died Aug. 30 at age 87 in Sydney.

 

"Dad died peacefully in his sleep early this morning, surrounded by his family," Cummings son, trainer Anthony Cummings, said on Twitter. "He lived a full life."

 

Cummings been in ill health for several years and was hospitalized in November. 

 

Cummings trained a number of champions, including Galilee, Let's Elope, Saintly, Light Fingers, Taj Rossi, Think Big, and So You Think. His tally of group I wins stands at a remarkable 266, second only to T.J. Smith's 282.

 

In Cumming’s dozen Melbourne Cup victories he also trained the runner-up in five of those races. He was affectionately dubbed "The Cups King."

 

He won Australia’s most famous race for the first time in 1965 with Light Fingers and followed in 1966 with Galilee, 1967 with Red Handed, 1974 and 1975 with Think Big, 1977 with Gold And Black, 1979 with Hyperno, 1990 with Kingston Rule, 1991 with Let's Elope, 1996 with Saintly, 1999 with Rogan Josh, and 2008 with Viewed.

 

Cummings won nearly every elite race in Australia and some multiple times. His runners won 12 Australian Cups, seven Caulfield Cups, eight Newmarket Handicaps, five W.S. Cox Plates, and four Golden Slippers, as well as 32 Derbys and 24 Oaks staged by various turf clubs. Overall, he won more than 750 stakes and nearly 7,000 races.

 

Cummings was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2001 and was award "Legend" status in 2008. He also is a member of the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.

 

Cummings was born and raised in Adelaide and worked for his father, Jim Cummings, at his stables before taking out his trainer license in 1953. He won his first race in 1955 with Wells and first group I race with Stormy Passage in the 1958 SAJC Derby. 

 

In 1974, Cummings became the first trainer not only in Australia, but also in the British Commonwealth, to train the earners of over $1 million dollars purses.

 

Cummings’ legacy will continue on through his family. In 2013, he formed a training partnership with his grandson James, Anthony’s son, who was his Sydney stable foreman. Anthony’s son Edward is also his father’s stable foreman.