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Winter Cup Could be Final Race for Prince Arthur - 06-24-09
June 24 - Although it's always sad when a top thoroughbred reaches the end of its racing career, it can still go out with a bang, which is what legendary Australian racehorse trainer Bart Cummings is hoping 6-year-old Prince Arthur will do in Saturday's 2400m Winter Cup at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney.
In the listed race at Sydney's premier horseracing venue, Prince Arthur - who is owned by Dato Tan Chin Nam - will be ridden by champion jockey Blake Shinn. Last year the three horsemen made horseracing headlines when they triumphed in the coveted Melbourne Cup with highly rated stallion, Viewed.
Each will be hoping that Saturday's Winter Cup goes as well for Prince Arthur, who has enjoyed a long and successful career. However, his connections feel that the time is right to put out him out to stud. It's likely that following the Winter Cup, Dato Tan Chin Nam will send him to Think Big Stud in the spring.
Despite finishing sixth in his last outing on June 13, Cummings is confident the 6-year-old can muster up one more stakes win on Saturday. 'This will be close to his last start so it would be nice to see him win,' said Cummings. 'His owner has had some success with Blake so I went with his request for him to ride.'
On Saturday Prince Arthur will be carrying 55.5kg, while Alexander Of Hales will be carrying 54.5kg and Come On Cugat and Twin Wing will be carrying 53.5kg each. But assuming Prince Arthur is in top form on the weekend, he'll have a tough job overcoming Nuclear Sky, with the top weight of 59.5kg.
Nuclear Sky, who is trained by Jack Denham, was the winner of the June 13 race that saw Prince Arthur finish unplaced. Fortunately for all of the Winter Stakes entrants, trainer Rick Hore-Lacy resisted the temptation to enter his talented runner Spare A Dime in the race, who would have been the horse to beat.
'It was very tempting to run him in Sydney because of the wet tracks and the dearth of stayers there,' said Hore-Lacy, 'But there's a $150,000 race for him where he has to be one of the top chances.' The trainer was referring to the 2500m Banjo Paterson Series Final at Flemington Racecourse in two weeks.
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