WELL-BRED COLT NO LONGER A MAIDEN

THURSDAY: August 17, 2023: EDWARD Cummings had the backing of the breeder of a beautifully-bred colt he was keen to buy at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter yearling sale.

So he went above what he thought the youngster might bring, and paid $200,000 to secure him from the Coolmore Stud draft.

Now an early three-year-old and having only his second start, Long Genes ($4.20 favorite) repaid the first instalment when he broke through today at his home track at Hawkesbury.

Ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, Long Genes gave promise of better things ahead in taking the Lifestyle Workers Group Provincial Maiden Handicap (1500m) at the first Provincial Showcase meeting of the new season.

The U S Navy Flag colt took improvement from his debut seventh in a Kembla Grange 2YO Maiden (1300m) on July 27 to defeat Gosford trainer Angela Davies’ Braven ($6) and Newcastle trainer Kris Lees’ Lady Townson ($4.60).

“Long Genes was a bit more expensive than I expected,” Cummings said this afternoon.

“But the colt’s breeder Sean Kiernan backed me by saying he wanted to stay in him, and that made it a bit easier.

“Once I bought him, we were then able to bring some other owners in.

“Long Genes isn’t a big horse, but neither were his sire and his dam Fanatic, and they were both Group 1 winners.

“We’ll take him along steadily and if things open up as we hope they might, there are some nice races ahead for him.”

Long Genes is the second foal of the daughter of Melbourne Cup winner Shocking (Fanatic), who won six races from 1400m to 3200m, including the NZ Oaks, Adelaide Cup and Sandown Cup.

The colt’s victory continued a successful start to the season for the Hawkesbury trainer, who also scored with Strait Acer at Rosehill Gardens last Saturday.

He will be back in town on Saturday to begin a new campaign with his triple Group 1 winner Duais (Jason Collett) in the $1m Group 1 wfa Winx Stakes (1400m).

“She is ready to go to the races, but it will depend on how the race is run as to how competitive she will be,” Cummings said.

“Duais was the best finisher when resuming twice last year in both the Apollo Stakes (1400m) at Randwick in February and Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield in August, but finished ninth and 10th respectively.”

. Sydney supremo Chris Waller equalled Gai Waterhouse’s Rowley Mile training record when he won Hawkesbury’s late winter feature for the sixth time today.

In a tense finish, Waller’s Bold Mac ($3.80) clinched a hat-trick in the $200,000 Listed event, sponsored by Pioneer Services, narrowly defeating Protagonist ($3.60 favorite), who was having his first start for Kris Lees after previously being trained in the UK.

Jason Attard and Lucy Keegan-Attard’s local Ruby Flyer ($4.60) covered himself in glory with his close third at his first open company test, after being slow to jump.

Waller first won the Rowley Mile in 2010 with Snow Alert, and has now five of the last eight runnings; also scoring with McCreery (2016), Mister Sea Wolf (2018), Savacool (2020) and Skyman last year.