MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015 SPORTS Legendary trainer Cummings dies SYDNEY: Bart Cummings, one of Adelaide in 1927, he spent his entire life Australia’s most successful and celebrated around horses, despite being allergic to horse racing trainers, died yesterday, aged both the animals and hay, and being 87. His family released a statement saying told by a doctor to find another profes- he had passed away peacefully in his sion. His father Jim was a trainer who sleep, surrounded by his family at home prepared the 1950 Melbourne Cup win- in Sydney. ner Comic Court. Cummings worked as a “His final moments were spent with his strapper for his father before taking out family and wife of 61 years, Valmae, with his own trainer’s licence in 1953. whom he celebrated their anniversary on “I jumped out of the stands, I was ter- Friday,” Cummings’ grandson and training ribly excited I can tell you that,” partner James said. Cummings told the ABC of that 1950 “For Bart, aged 87, this was a fitting win. “I’m just thankful my father talked end. A husband, father, grandfather and me into being a horse trainer.” great-grandfather; a master trainer and a Cummings landed his first Group One larger than life figure.” victory with Stormy Passage in the 1958 An icon of Australian horse racing, South Australia Derby and went on to Cummings prepared the winners of saddle 268 Group One winners, 266 on almost 7,000 races during his training his own and two with grandson James. career, which started in 1953. With the dual gifts of patience and He won virtually every major race on the eye to spot a future champion, he the Australian racing calendar including won seven Caulfield Cups, 13 Australian the Melbourne Cup, the country’s most Cups, five Cox Plates, four Golden revered race, a record 12 times, a feat Slippers and 32 Derbys and 24 Oaks. But which earned him the nickname the ‘Cups his greatest success came in the King’. Known for his dry wit and big bushy Melbourne Cup, the famed 3,200 metre eyebrows, Cummings transcended his handicap “that stops a nation”. sport, becoming a household name in Australia and the rest of the racing world. He won his first Melbourne Cup in “Australia has lost a sporting giant and 1965 with Light Fingers, his second with a racing legend,” the country’s Prime Galilee in 1966 and his third with Red Minister Tony Abbott said. “Few people Handed a year later. COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Pradeep celebrates the dismissal of India’s Ajinkya Rahane on the third day of their third Test cricket have dominated a sport like Bart He won back-to-back Melbourne match. — AP Cummings did. He will be remembered Cups with Think Big in 1974 and 1975, as a truly great trainer, the winner of liter- and won again with Gold And Black ally thousands of races. (1977), Hyperno (9179), Kingston Rule Bowlers’ day out opens “Twelve of those victories were (1990), Let’s Elope (1991), Saintly (1999) Melbourne Cups and in five of those wins and Rogan Josh (1999). His last he also trained the runner-up, an extraor- Melbourne Cup winner was Viewed in dinary achievement. Race day will not be 2008. Cummings set all sorts of records during his career and won training titles up India-Sri Lanka Test the same without him.” Tributes began pouring in from all in three different states. walks of Australian life and flags at race- He also carried the Olympic torch COLOMBO: The decisive third and final Test courses around the country were lowered before the 2000 Sydney Games and was between India and Sri Lanka was on a knife edge to half-mast. the first person inducted in Australia’s after 15 wickets fell during a dramatic third day’s SCOREBOARD “Bart was always in a league of his Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2001. play in Colombo yesterday. own. His larger than life character and Cummings had becoming increasing- Play ended with India on 21-3 in their second sharp wit will be sorely missed,” said Peter ly fragile in recent years, and started innings, an overall lead of 132 with seven wick- COLOMBO: Scoreboard at stumps on the third day of the third and final Test between Sri Lanka V’landys, the chief executive of Racing spending less time at the track as he ets in hand on a seaming pitch at the Sinhalese and India at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo yesterday: NSW. “Bart goes down as a legend in battled chest infections. Sports Club. With the series locked at 1-1 and India 1st innings (overnight 292-8): K. Perera c Kohli b I. Sharma 55 Australian sport, up there with the great Leading Sydney trainer Gai bowlers from both sides trying to press home L. Rahul b Prasad 2 D. Prasad st Ojha b Mishra 27 Don Bradman.” Waterhouse said: “To all of us in the rac- the advantage, a fine rearguard action by Sri C. Pujara not out 145 R. Herath c Ojha b I. Sharma 49 ing industry, Bart was a true icon. Lanka’s lower order stood out. A. Rahane lbw b Pradeep 8 T. Kaushal lbw b Mishra 16 EARLY SUCCESS Everything that (he) envisaged was a India’s makeshift opener Cheteshwar Pujara V. Kohli c Perera b Mathews 18 N. Pradeep not out 2 Born in the South Australian capital success.” — Reuters carried his bat through his side’s innings to R. Sharma c Tharanga b Prasad 26 Extras: (lb1, w2, nb7) 10 anchor his team to a competitive 312 before S. Binny lbw b Prasad 0 Total (all out, 52.2 overs) 201 their first innings ended 25 minutes after the N. Ojha c Tharanga b Kaushal 21 Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Tharanga), 2-11 (Silva), 3- start of the day’s play. R. Ashwin c Perera b Prasad 5 40 (Chandimal), 4-45 (Mathews), 5-47 The hosts slipped to 47-6 in reply and were in A. Mishra st Perera b Herath 59 (Karunaratne), 6-47 (Thirimanne), 7-127 danger of being asked to follow on before the I. Sharma b Herath 6 (Perera), 8-156 (Kaushal), 9-183 (Herath), 10- last four wickets added 154 runs in a remarkable U. Yadav b Herath 4 201 (Prasad) revival that helped them to 201 soon after tea. Extras: (lb2, w4, nb7, pen5) 18 Bowling: I. Sharma 15-2-54-5 (nb6, w1), Yadav Indian seamer Ishant Sharma picked up five Total (all out, 100.1 overs) 312 13-2-64-1, Binny 9-3-24-2 (w1), Ashwin 8-1-33- wickets, but Sri Lanka were saved by a defiant Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Rahul), 2-14 (Rahane), 3-64 0, Mishra 7.2-1-25-2 (nb1) 79-run partnership between debutant wicket- (Kohli), 4-119 (R. Sharma), 5-119 (Binny), 6-173 keeper Kusal Perera and tailender Rangana (Ojha), 7-180 (Ashwin), 8-284 (Mishra), 9-298 (I. India 2nd innings: Herath. The pair joined hands with the hosts still Sharma), 10-312 (Yadav) C. Pujara b Prasad 0 66 away from avoiding the follow-on and with Bowling: Prasad 26-4-100-4 (nb4, w1), Pradeep L. Rahul b Pradee 2 Dhammika Prasad having retired hurt after 22-6-52-1 (w3), Mathews 13-6-24-1, Herath A. Rahane lbw b Pradeep 4 being hit on the hand by a rising ball from 27.1-3-84-3, Kaushal 12-2-45-1 (nb3) V. Kohli not out 1 R. Sharma not out 14 Sharma. Extras 0 Sri Lanka 1st innings: Left-handed Perera, making his Test debut Total (for 3 wickets, 8.1 overs) 21 after playing 48 one-day internationals and 20 U. Tharanga c Rahul b I. Sharma 4 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Pujara), 2-2 (Rahul), 3-7 Twenty20 games, smashed the Indian bowlers K. Silva b Yadav 3 (Rahane) for 55 off 56 balls with the help of nine bound- D. Karunaratne c Rahul b Binny 11 Bowling: Prasad 4.1-2-8-1, Pradeep 3-1-6-2, aries. D. Chandimal lbw b Binny 23 Herath 1-0-7-0 Perera was dismissed by Sharma, top-edging A. Mathews c Ojha b I. Sharma 1 India lead by 132 runs with seven wickets in a pull to mid-off, but 37-year-old veteran Herath L. Thirimanne c Rahul b I. Sharma 0 hand made 49 and Prasad, who returned to bat after being treated in the dressing room, chipped in with 27. Ishant Sharma said Perera and Herath Hopefully we can get to what we got in the first Sharma played out time before heavy rain end- had “nothing to lose” when they went after the innings and give them a good target to chase.” ed play 35 minutes early. Pujara had been bowling in a desperate bid to boost the total. Perera said it could be anyone’s match on the dropped for India’s last four Tests across “Talking of Kusal Perera, he had nothing to lively pitch. “The wicket is quite lively and the Australia, Bangladesh and the ongoing series. lose and was just going after the bowling,” the match is wide open,” he said. “If we can take And he might have missed this match had both lanky seamer said. “As a bowler, one really can’t quick wickets tomorrow there is a good chance regular openers Murali Vijay and Shikhar do much except bowl in the right areas.