Bart Cummings: The Cups King Who Never Lost His Eye for a Stayer

There is a reason racing folk still say a horse is "the type Bart would have loved." No trainer in Australian history has dominated a single race the way James Bartholomew "Bart" Cummings dominated the Melbourne Cup, and the video above, produced by Flemington's own VRC, walks through exactly how a horseman from Adelaide became the most successful conditioner in the race's history.

From Adelaide Stables to a National Nickname

Cummings didn't start out chasing Cups glory. He took out his trainer's licence in 1953, working out of his father Jim's Adelaide stables before building his own empire that would eventually stretch across three states. His breakthrough on the big stage came through the 1960s, and by the time he'd landed three Melbourne Cups in that decade — the video touches on this early run — racing writers had already reached for the nickname that stuck for the rest of his life: the Cups King.

What followed is the number every Cup broadcast repeats without needing to check it: 12 Melbourne Cups, trained across five different decades, from Light Fingers in 1965 through to Viewed in 2008. In between came Galilee, Red Handed, the back-to-back Think Big in 1974 and 1975, Gold and Black, Hyperno, Kingston Rule, Let's Elope, Saintly and Rogan Josh. No other trainer has got within striking distance of that tally, and the clip is right to frame it as a record that may never be broken given how the training and international-raider landscape has changed since Cummings' era.

An Eye for the Stayer, Not Just the Sprinter

What the video is really getting at, though, isn't just the trophy count — it's the method. Cummings built his reputation on picking out horses bred to relish two miles at the end of a long preparation, then having the patience to bring them to peak fitness on Cup day itself rather than a fortnight earlier. That's a skill that's gone distinctly out of fashion in an industry increasingly built around speed, early two-year-old riches and shorter black-type sprints. Cummings swam against that tide his whole career, and it's part of why his record in the staying ranks — including 13 Australian Cups and nine VRC Oaks — looks almost untouchable today.

Why It Still Matters to Punters

None of this is a betting system. Cummings' gift was reading pedigree, conformation and racing manners well enough to know which horse could genuinely get the trip — a skill built over decades, not something to reverse-engineer from a highlight reel. But the underlying lesson holds up: staying races reward horses (and stables) built for the distance, not just the ones carrying the crowd's money. When you're sizing up a spring staying race, the questions Cummings was famous for asking — has this horse proven it wants two miles, and has the preparation actually built towards this day — are still worth asking yourself before you back anything longer than 2400 metres. Betting on staying races carries the same risks as any other form of wagering, and past training brilliance is no guarantee of a future result.