Cumani has memories to last a lifetime – but little time to dwell on them

There was a tinge of lament in Luca Cumani’s tone on Monday as he sat back to reflect on a career that has seen him scale numerous daunting mountains.

He was surrounded by the trappings of his success in the well-appointed drawing room at Bedford House Stables, where he has trained for 43 years.

Cumani, 69, had just informed his 20 staff he would be standing down from training in the first week of December.

“It was emotional,” he said. “The girls ended up in floods of tears. They all seemed to be as sad as I am at the cessation of activity at Bedford House.”

And no wonder. In his pomp Cumani was a match for racing’s twin knights, the Newmarket titans Sir Henry Cecil and Sir Michael Stoute. He won a brace of Derbys, a slew of Europe’s most prestigious races, and above all, the respect of his peers.

Leaner times have since descended on Cumani, whose split three years ago with Postponed’s owner, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, was to prove insurmountable.

“My heart is still in it,” he ventured. “I still think I’m as capable as I have always been. I’d have loved to carry on, but my mind tells me I'm swimming against the tide.”

As much as the reality, Cumani’s pride would not allow him to carry on with a string of 40 horses. “It’s the time of year when I’d like to be thinking about travelling to Melbourne and Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup instead of Wolverhampton and Chelmsford – and no disrespect intended to those venues,” he said with his stock-in-trade humour.

“I'm too competitive by nature,” he continued. “It’s frustrating for me not to be able to compete at that level. I went to Ascot on Saturday to saddle a 20-1 shot [God Given in the Fillies & Mares Stakes], who was trying to get third place in a Group 1 race. I felt a bit sad. It’s not really enough to keep me excited.”

Over one hour of reflection, not once did Cumani – the son of Sergio, champion trainer in Italy ten times, and Elena, a champion amateur in the saddle – incline towards regret that it had come to this. Too many golden memories have been banked since he took out his licence in 1976.

“There have been some big milestones,” he reflected. “My very first winner was in a Group race when Three Legs won the [1976] Duke of York Stakes, and that came soon after I’d saddled Konafa to finish second in the 1,000 Guineas. I was runner-up in the same race 12 months later with Freeze The Secret.

"For a young, unknown ‘wop’ to be hitting those targets, I was very lucky to have those kind of horses when I started.”

The Cumani string on Warren HillCredit: Chris Bourchier

Cumani’s ‘wop’ reference alludes to the sobriquet bestowed on him by Cecil, to whom he was assistant trainer for two years when he moved to Britain in 1974. It was Cecil who set the standard to which all other trainers aspired in the final two decades of the last millennium. Cumani came closer than most to matching it.

“I remember one year I actually led Henry in the trainers' title race until the end of September,” Cumani recalled. “Then Henry did well at the old QEII meeting at Ascot and I couldn’t catch him up.”

Their duel in 1988 was the closest Cumani came to wresting the crown from an older guard comprising Cecil and Stoute, who plundered nine titles during that decade.

“The next big moment for me came with Tolomeo,” Cumani said. “He became the first English-trained horse to win a million-dollar race in America when he won the [1983] Arlington Million.

“Then we had the two Derby winners with Kahyasi [1988] and High-Rise [1998]. It's been a great privilege to train for the Aga Khan and Sheikh Mohammed [who owned those horses respectively].

Standing tall: Cumani overcame the setbacks and bounced backCredit: Edward Whitaker

"After that we had another major highlight when Barathea won the [1994] Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs.”

Barathea was bred and owned initially by Gerald Leigh, to whom Cumani paid handsome tribute. Until his death in 2002, Leigh’s Eydon Hall Farm was a metaphor for equine excellence. The stud produced a plethora of top-class horses from a small herd of around 20 mares. The best of their progeny were allocated to Cumani each year.

“Gerald was a major part of my training career as an owner, a friend and a mentor for the interest in breeding I was developing at that time,” Cumani said. “I was in the privileged position of training the cream of his crop and we enjoyed some wonderful times together.”

Other top-class horses Cumani trained for Leigh were Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Gossamer, Canadian International Stakes winner Infamy, and Markofdistinction, whose victory in the 1990 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes marked a first Group 1 triumph for the young Frankie Dettori, then 19.

Cumani greets Frankie Dettori after Falbrav's 2003 Hong Kong Cup successCredit: Edward Whitaker

Cumani launched Dettori’s career when the teenage wannabe arrived at Bedford House in 1985 with big dreams but precious little saddle-craft. “I was told Frankie knew how to ride, but when he first came here he used to fall off every day,” Cumani reflected of the talent that would initially flourish under his wing.

“Frankie would always get straight back on with a smile on his face. But when he started riding work you could see straight away horses responded to him. I've always felt he can transmit his will to win to the horses he rides.”

Conversely, Cumani’s associations with the Aga Khan and Sheikh Mohammed ended unhappily, if not acrimoniously. His expansion of Bedford House to accommodate a new influx of horses from Sheikh Mohammed in the mid-1990s coincided with the sheikh's decision to set up Godolphin.

“Since I was only fourth or fifth in the pecking order among Sheikh Mohammed’s trainers, I wasn’t sent any more horses when the focus shifted to Godolphin,” Cumani explained. “There was no falling out.”

Cumani says the same was true when the Aga Khan removed his horses from Cumani’s stable in 2000 after two of them had failed post-race tests the trainer says were not serious in nature. “I tried to justify to him what had happened and he then took the decision to move his horses,” Cumani said.

Falbrav wins the Hong Cup: Cumani rates him the best he trainedCredit: Edward Whitaker

“There was no falling out. I don’t think the Aga Khan’s heart was really in British racing at that time. My observation is that he was almost waiting for an excuse not to race here any more.”

Cumani would rebound resourcefully from both reverses. “We then had Falbrav and Starcraft, who came to us from Australia [in 2005],” he recalled. “Starcraft won me my third QEII, after Markofdistinction and Falbrav, but if you pressed me on the best I trained, I’d have to say Falbrav.

“He won five Group 1s for us in 2003. It would have been six had he not been nearly put through the rails in the Irish Champion Stakes, and it could have been seven had Darryll [Holland] not kicked too early in the straight at Santa Anita in the Breeders’ Cup Turf [in which he finished a close-up third].

"He held his form from April right through to December, when he won in Hong Kong. He was an exceptional horse with raw power and incredible ability.”

Cumani's fertile mind will be kept busy in his new role as owner-manager of Fittocks StudCredit: Edward Whitaker

Although there are more than enough memories to last Cumani the rest of his lifetime, he does not care to dwell on the past. His fertile mind will be kept busy in his new role as owner-manager of Fittocks Stud, which he and wife Sara have developed into a top-class private nursery.

“I don’t like to use the word ‘retiring’ or ‘giving up’, because I'm not the retiring type or type who gives up,” he said. “I'm changing to another job, which I'm very much looking forward to. Breeding horses is the second love of my life after training.

“I'm greatly indebted to all my staff and my owners, many of whom have become friends. I'm also proud that so many of my assistants have gone on to have fruitful careers in their own right. I'm well aware I've been extremely lucky in so many respects.”

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