It’s an association that was started by the Ballarat conditioner’s father Luca, who enjoyed a glittering domestic and international training career from his Newmarket base of Bedford House Stables for more than four decades.
Numerous top-class thoroughbreds passed through Cumani’s hands, including two G1 English Derby winners in Kahyasi (Ire) (Ile De Bourbon {USA}) and High-Rise (Ire) (High Estate {Ire}) while Barathea (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells {USA}) was a G1 Irish 2000 Guineas and G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner.
Falbrav (Ire) (Fairy King {USA}) was also a five-time Group 1 winner and a close second in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2003.
Luca Cumani (left)
Agonisingly close
Four years later Cumani was in Australia with Purple Moon (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who finished runner-up in the G1 Melbourne Cup behind Efficient (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and the following year he was back with Bauer (Ire) (Halling {USA}).
He won the G3 Geelong Cup before he was beaten by the slenderest of margins in the cup by Viewed (Scenic {Ire}). Cumani also produced Mount Athos (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) to finish fifth in 2012 and third the year after to Fiorente (Ire) (Monsun {GB}).
Cumani retired from training last year and his historic yard was purchased by Charlie Fellowes, who has last year’s G1 Melbourne Cup placegetter Prince Of Arran (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) back for another crack on Tuesday.
Prince Of Arran
“He retired in September of last year and he’s loving it to be honest. He’s always been someone that can handle down time quite well, he’s not been one to fret about not having something to do,” Matt Cumani said.
“He’s loves reading and following other sports. He doesn’t call it retirement, he says he’s got another career and they’ve got a beautiful stud just outside of Newmarket.
“My father and my mother Sara look after that and they built a lovely house on it and are concentrating on breeding.”
“He doesn’t call in retirement, he says he’s got another career and they’ve got a beautiful stud just outside of Newmarket.” – Matt Cumani
Cumani junior, whose sister Francesca is also a familiar face at carnival time through her television broadcasting duties, is hoping Sign Seal Deliver can deliver a bold showing on Saturday.
The lightly-tried colt, who is part-owned by Luca and goes into the Derby off three runs, has yet to win but has performed well and placed in his first two starts before finishing fifth in the Listed Geelong Classic.
“It was a good run and he just didn’t quite have the speed to get through a gap and was shoved out of the way by the eventual winner Long Jack. After that he was pretty strong to the line,” said Cumani, who launched his training career in 2015.
“He’s a lovely horse and any Dundeel that looks as good as he does with good form you have to respect. He’s probably still three months off where he needs to be for a Derby though.
“He’s a lovely horse and any Dundeel that looks as good as he does with good form you have to respect.'' - Matt Cumani
“The owners are obviously dead keen to have a Derby runner and he was bought for it. I set him a number of tests – he had to run a good race at Geelong, pull up sound and do a good gallop and he passed those.
“I’m happy for him to run and he’s probably got a better chance than the odds would suggest. He’ll certainly stay the distance.”
Magic Millions graduate
Sign Seal Deliver was purchased out of Goodwood Farm’s draft at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale for $200,000 with Cumani signing for the colt with Boomer Bloodstock.
Sign Seal Deliver as a yearling
He is a son of the Listed Centaurea S. winner Vivid Vixen (NZ) (Ekraar {USA}) and her dam is a sister to the former champion Hong Kong stayer Super Kid (NZ) (Gaius {Ire}).
“I saw him at the sales and loved him. It sounds like I might be saying things after the facts, but I did always love the Dundeels,” Cumani said.
“They were just such elegant, beautiful moving horses and different to what I expected. They possibly look a bit more like High Chaparral than I thought and great, great movers.
“(The Dundeels) were just such elegant, beautiful moving horses and different to what I expected.” – Matt Cumani.
“We bought as many as we could and done quite well with them. Now they are a little bit too expensive for us to afford, this boy is such a stunner and if he was at the sales now he’d be a very, very expensive horse so we managed to get in a bit earlier with the Dundeels.
“That year, my father, mother and sister were all up there at the sales and we all put our lists together.
“My mother and father said they would stay in for five per cent of all the horses bought so it would be great to get a good win with this horse at some point for all the owners, especially for the old man.
“He’s going to be at home, they usually come out but this year we are going up there to them for Christmas so they decided to skip it.”
