Ride to the light … James Cummings watches AnamoeCredit:Louise Kennerley
We’re standing in the middle of a paddock in darkness, waiting for the best horse in the country, possibly the world, to grace us with his presence.
The stars are so abundant and bright just before the dawn on this Thursday you feel like reaching up and grabbing a handful.
Smog might make for great sunrises in the city but here, at Godolphin’s Osborne Park training facility 70 kilometres northwest of Sydney, the clean air reveals a blanket of stars and it allows us to see through the gloom.
So far, millions of dollars of equine stars have trotted past: Cascadian, last month’s Australian Cup winner; In Secret, the crack filly that claimed the Newmarket; Golden Mile, last year’s Caulfield Guineas victor.
It’s fun putting a face to the name on the betting slip, and they’re all outstanding thoroughbreds, but we’re here to see the big dog of the stable. The heavyweight champ. The rock star. We’re here to see Jordan. Tiger. LeBron.
We’re here to see Anamoe.
James Cummings with Anamoe this week: “This is the ultimate challenge for him in Australia.”Credit:Louise Kennerley
“One of those floating lights will be him,” says James Cummings, Godolphin’s head trainer for the past five years, referring to the light on the trackwork rider’s helmet.
The sun pokes its head above the contorted gorges surrounding the 200-acre property, and it gives us our first look at the nine-time group 1 winner as he swaggers past.
There’ll be no vigorous gallop today; just two laps on the sand. As Anamoe does so at a steady clip, Cummings peers through his binoculars in the emerging light.
“When I say he’s the alpha male, I say it because he knows it,” Cummings explains. “Not just because he’s won nine group 1s, but because he knows it. He wanders out of his barn and the others scatter. He gets right of way. The morning unfolds to his liking.”
On Saturday at Royal Randwick, Anamoe is hunting victory in the $5 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m). It will be the four-year-old’s final start in Australia before, most likely, being sent to Royal Ascot for the Queen Anne Stakes (1600m).
After that, he’ll retire to the stud farm to make little Anamoes, probably at $120,000 per service.
Victory in the Queen Elizabeth would be a fitting farewell for a horse that His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai who owns Godolphin, considers his favourite. For context, Godolphin has a worldwide operation of more than 4500 thoroughbreds.
No pressure, Anamoe.
‘When I say he’s the alpha male, I say it because he knows it.’
James Cummings
“Sheikh Mohammed does like him,” Cummings attests. “He’d dearly like to have the horse travel to Royal Ascot and perform, but his focus is to bring him only if he’s fresh and happy.”
Another prominent fan of the horse is His Highness Bruce McAvaney, the legendary Channel Seven racing caller who has run a discerning eye over more champion thoroughbreds than most.
He has made no secret of his affection for Anamoe during Seven’s coverage this season. “Bruce seems to have fallen for the horse and I think that’s wonderful,” Cummings says. “Because Bruce doesn’t fall lightly.”
Last October, McAvaney drew comparisons between Anamoe and So You Think, who was prepared by Cummings’ famous grandfather, Bart.
“It’s the cord between the two,” McAvaney says. “To me, So You Think was Bart’s great horse and close to his best and Anamoe is James’ first really great horse.”
The connection runs deeper than that, of course: both stallions, both multiple group 1 winners, both Cox Plate winners as hot favourites as four-year-olds.
“And both have a presence,” McAvaney adds. “So You Think is probably more handsome than Anamoe, but both are very much, ‘Look at me, look at me! Here I am!’ They glow with confidence.”
Cummings is uncomfortable with the comparison with his grandfather’s last great champion, although he understands it.
“So You Think was a magnificent horse that was close to not only my family but people who had their fingerprints on him,” he says. “But, in many ways, the career Anamoe’s established already justifies that comparison. He justifies the admiration. He’s danced every dance. He’s been in all the big carnivals and all the big races. We haven’t dodged a hard race yet.”
Most owners rush good horses to stud and if Anamoe won the Golden Slipper (in which he came second) as a two-year-old or the Cox Plate (in which he also came second) as a three-year-old, that probably would have happened.
Trainer James Cummings at Godolphin’s stables at Osborne Park.Credit:Louise Kennerley
It also helps when your pockets are as deep as Sheikh Mohammed’s. His patience in allowing Anamoe to race on has been justified.
Stallions lose focus as they get older, so they tell me. They’re mind is on the breeding barn instead of the winning post. If a filly is in his orbit, Anamoe certainly knows it. But his will to win hasn’t faded; he’s won seven from eight starts this season.
In his last start, the George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill, gun jockey James McDonald settled him three wide — as per Cummings’ instruction — after jumping out of barrier 11.
Only the very good horses have the ability in a competitive group 1 race to sit without cover, just to stay out of trouble, knowing there’s enough in the lungs and legs to still win.
James McDonald was always confident on Anamoe despite a torrid run in the George Ryder Stakes.Credit:Getty
Cummings and McDonald can’t afford Anamoe that luxury in the Queen Elizabeth. Not with a horse like Dubai Honour, the $2.50 favourite at the time of writing, in the field.
The English raider, trained out of Newmarket by William Haggas, won the Ranvet Stakes (2000m) by five lengths on the same day as Anamoe’s victory.
It was Dubai Honour’s first start in five months and the performance was so impressive that Anamoe, for the first time in memory, is the underdog instead of the big dog.
The butterflies are already stirring in McAvaney’s tummy about the showdown in the Queen Elizabeth.
“There’s a bit at stake here — Australia’s reputation as a great racing nation is on the line,” he says. “Dubai Honour, what he did the other day was jaw-dropping. He’s high class but not the absolute top class [in Great Britain]. If Dubai Honour was to beat Anamoe, if not narrowly, it will be a strike for the Northern Hemisphere over Australia.”
Victory is also required to confirm Anamoe’s final race: the Queen Anne, a mile race down the straight at Royal Ascot in June.
No pressure, Anamoe.
“It’s an ‘only if’ scenario,” Cummings insists. “He needs to prove he’s good enough against that horse.”
Anamoe is no Winx, the Chris Waller wonder horse who won this race three times and retired after claiming it in 2019, but he’s one of those horses that captures the attention of casual racing observers.
Waller has said before he regretted not soaking up the public’s affection for the champion mare and Cummings admits he’s guilty of doing the same thing with Anamoe. For most trainers, there’s always the next horse, the next race, the next problem to solve.
So let’s leave it to McAvaney to give us some perspective.
“When Anamoe races,” he says, “it’s more than a racing moment. He’s not like Black Caviar or Winx, but he transcends the sport. If he can win these next two races, he will be at the shoulder of those great horses.”
When Anamoe finishes his work, trackwork rider Tony Maher brings him back towards the patch of grass where Cummings is standing alongside his affable foreman, Paul Reid.
“Happiest I’ve seen him in a long period,” Cummings says.
The horse stands so still, so upright, so impervious, he looks like a statue. I ask Maher what it’s like being on the back of a beast such as this one.
“He’s a gentleman, he really is,” he says. “A lot of horses aren’t so obliging. He’ll do whatever I ask of him. That might change if there’s a filly in the vicinity. That’s when he reaches for the stars.”
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