Luca Cumani: 'It was very unexpected - and I never saw the top of the mountain again after that'
Lewis Porteous talks to the dual Derby winner 25 years on from High-Rise's victory for an owner who would later spark the beginning of the end
Just when you think you've seen it all, 74-year-old Luca Cumani comes tearing up his driveway on a quad bike. Disappointed with himself that he is a few minutes late for our meeting, he is nevertheless in fine fettle – and why wouldn't he be?
Set among 360 acres of the finest vistas Suffolk has to offer, his Fittocks Stud on the outskirts of Newmarket is the safest of havens for its equine residents. The wonderful house Cumani has built there, on the other hand, is a slice of heaven on earth for himself and wife Sara.
Considering the serenity which surrounds us, it is perhaps a little foolish to ask if he in any way misses the cut-throat world he left behind when bringing a training career spanning five decades to an end in 2018, but it nevertheless sets us on our way after the Italian coffee has been served.
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Published on 29 May 2023inInterviews
Last updated 12:08, 30 May 2023
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- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
- Paul Carberry: 'I jumped up on to the rafters. It tended to be all very strait-laced in those days, but I changed that'
- 'We’re like a Sunday League team running in an FA Cup final - we’re taking on the best with an £800 homebred'
- 'Educating myself has let me live a fuller life - just because you've been diagnosed with dyslexia doesn't mean you can't keep working at it'