| Hall of Fame
trainer Bart Cummings may have unearthed an exciting spring carnival prospect in the shape
of the Langfuhr two-year-old Frightening. Cummings
had a twinkle in his eye and was no doubt unhatching carnival plans for Frightening after
the colt scored a fighting win in the Hanan Displays Handicap (1410m) at Flemington
yesterday.
Usually only in Melbourne for the carnivals from his Sydney
base, Cummings was a face in the crowd at yesterday’s Flemington meeting and
indicated after the race he was keen to come and see Frightening race.
"I think he’s a really nice horse," Cummings
said. "He’s certainly worth coming down and having a look at."
Cummings, who bred the colt, felt the youngster was capable
of making good improvement and could develop into a carnival galloper.
"We’ll send him out for a few weeks to ease up on
him before bringing him back to have a look at the spring," Cummings said.
In a driving finish Frightening ($7-$10), a last start
runner-up at Geelong, was able to show plenty of fight to hold out the fast finishing
Glefti ($17-$21) by a half length.
"He was getting a little tired at the end, but he did
impress me," Cummings added. "There’s plenty of improvement left in him
yet."
Frightening is from the Nassipour mare Nassabelle, one of a
handful of mares owned by Cummings and used to breed himself some horses for his
interstate stables.
"She (Nassabelle) is one of half a dozen mares I own
back on the farm," Cummings reported. Unfortunately not so long ago he lost the star
of his broodmare band All Grace, the dam of his tenth Melbourne Cup winner Saintly.
The colt who Cummings describes as having "good
manners" and a "good trier," is tipped to be able to handle more ground
next preparation.
"He’s by a stallion who handled the middle
distances and he should get a lot of stamina as he’s out of a Nassipour mare,"
Cummings said.
The race gave record breaking trainer John Hawkes a
frustrating experience. The last start Sandown winner Domine led early but weakened over
the concluding stages to finish out of a place, while the heavily supported Nostalgic
($8-$5.50) was never in the hunt and managed to run only mid field. |
