Victorian-based trainer Matt Cumani believes he has found his 'dream horse' in Team Captain, who will run in a staying race on Melbourne Cup day.
The son of renowned English trainer Luca and brother to racing commentator and expert Francesca, Cumani will take his six-year-old gelding to Flemington on Tuesday and contest The Macca's Run.
It was a tough decision for Cumani, who could have opted to race Team Captain in the Lexus Hotham on Derby Day, but believes the race on the biggest day of the year will be a better fit.
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"Captain is doing great at the moment and he’s really coming on in leaps and bounds....he is such a clean-winded horse, he could get any distance right up to 3200m and that’s one of the main reasons I was keen to go for the Macca’s Run. I don’t think the distance will be a problem at all for him," he told Sporting News.
“The Lexus would be an ideal race for him – but I really see it as a perfect race for him next year if we’re not already in the Melbourne Cup field at this point next year.
"This year, he wouldn’t have got into the Melbourne Cup because he hasn’t been nominated and his rating wasn’t really high enough. Had he been nominated and won the Lexus, he would have been able to go in.
"Ideally in the future, we can get to the Melbourne Cup without having to run the Lexus, because it’s only a few days before. Those staying races, it’s nice if you can give them a nice easy lead-in rather than having to back them up.
"This year, it was about which race he was going to fit in best. I absolutely am convinced he will get any distance you like, the further the better and his pedigree says that. I don’t think this is a problem at all, therefore The Macca’s Run really came into focus for me.
"Also the fact he would be running against similarly-rated horses. I’ve had a brief chance to look at the nominations, but just having a look at the top-rated horses – they are rated 95 and we are 82, so we carry 6.5kg less than the top horse.
"Had we gone to The Lexus, we’d be carrying more than we ought to have done and it puts us at a slight disadvantage. Had he gone to a Lexus he would have jumped up to that sort of rating, but The Macca’s Run fits well and it’s a nice step-up.
"Often in Australian staying races, there are doubts as to whether they can stay and they tend to do a little bit, then back them off and they end up in a stop-start races which I don’t think would suit us.
"We want to make sure it is a genuine test, and that’s how we can ensure he runs to his very best."
Team Captain is coming off a strong win in the Hamilton Cup earlier this month, and will come into Tuesday's race with plenty of momentum.
The race in which he was going to run wasn't the only tough decision that Cumani was faced with either, with the trainer having to decide on a jockey for the big race at Flemington.
“It’s a bit of a tricky one because you think if you go to the big day and you might change jockey for a flashy-named top jock," he said.
"I really value jockeys that know a horse and understand them, so I’m actually going to stick with Blaike McDougall.
"We’ve seen him in town over the last few weeks in the spring carnival, he’s a terrific jockey and I think he knows Team Captain and rode him beautifully in the Hamilton Cup.
"We were told at the beginning of the week he might not be available, so we were looking around and were considering Jye McNeil. Blaike is free, so we are going to stick with someone who knows him and we think that will pay dividends on the day.
“He’s ready to go and we’re going to give him a little bit more work, a nice little maintenance gallop. That should put him absolutely bang-on."
Cumani only took over the training of Team Captain a couple of months ago, and has got the gelding off to a winning start.
He revealed how the former Yulong stayer was a 'dream horse' for him when he arrived at the stables and is now owned by Vic Husslers in partnership with The Racing League.
“I loved the horse – we’d had an average day and that certainly brightened my day up," he said.
"He’s the sort of horse that trainers like me, who have a particular liking for stayers, he is a dream horse.
"You couldn’t get a better-bred horse for this sort of distance, and when he arrived in the yard I couldn’t have been more delighted to see a nice good-looking and great-temperament horse. He’s actually a lovely horse, really chilled, really good temperament and he’s got a great physical.
"To see him win like he did at Hamilton was a great thrill, and he is a terrific horse to have in the stable and a terrific horse for the Vic Husslers.
“I think he is a born and bred stayer. He is the type of horse that naturally has a likening for those sort of trips. If you saw him in a sprint race, he would look slow – but what he has got is great cardio and he can maintain a solid tempo for a lot longer than a lot of other horses.
"It’s something European horses do really well and it’s something that ties in really well with my training. Given my background, it is all centred around stayers.
"When I have a sprinter in the stables, I have to take my model of training and really change it. Rather than have a middle-distance or sprinting template like a lot of Aussie trainers do and then have to add on, mine is the other way around.
"He fits into my training program really comfortably and he is a pleasure to have in the stable."
