Racing: Cummings thinks he can win Cup

Bart Cummings. Photo / Getty Images.

If you wait for Bart Cummings to give himself up you'll miss the train.

The master of a one-liner sidestep that Sonny Bill Williams could do well to add to his tricks, Bart was at it again in Melbourne yesterday even from his sickbed.

Even in his own column in the Herald Sun.

It was as much what he didn't say as what was read.

He won't really be drawn into whether he believes So You Think will handle the 3200m of Tuesday's A$6 million ($7.7 million) Melbourne Cup.

What he did say was he won't be at Flemington today - he'll still be in hospital - but is "50-50" to be there for the Cup.

Cummings was hospitalised midweek for a "raised temperature".

Let's face it, most punters have those five times every raceday.

The 82-year-old was in hospital with pneumonia in April and his current woes are thought to be respiratory related.

The Victoria Racing Club has put on what is being dubbed a "Bartmobile", a converted golf cart to mobilise Cummings if he makes it to Flemington on Tuesday.

Cummings says he is blaming "the bloody Melbourne weather: hot one day freezing the next, looks nice and warm outside and then you go out and it's like the South Pole".

The master trainer says he's leaving it up to the doctors and doesn't ask many questions.

"You know what happens when you tell experts how to do their jobs."

Years ago Cummings told a prospective owner his training fees were A$65 a day, but if the owner wanted to offer advice it was A$85 a day.

Without elaborating too much, Cummings had a swipe at the suggestion So You Think won't manage the Melbourne Cup distance.

"All I can tell you is get on now [price A$3.20 out to A$7].

"Don't worry what the bookies are saying. If you listen to them you go broke.

"I'm not too worried about a wet track. A dead track's all right for him. He's not so good on worse than dead, but most of them are the same."

So, there's a tip there because although Flemington may dry out reasonably well from the predicted deluge today, Cummings was going close to declaring So You Think can't win the Cup on anything worse than a dead surface.

There are a lot of horses' strides in 3200m and if an affected track is shortening those strides even fractionally, that's a lot of shortening.

Cummings' most positive statement was that for today's A$1 million Mackinnon Stakes he will ask rider Steven Arnold to ride So You Think back in the field to try and get him into the settled mode he'll definitely need to have any chance in the Cup on Tuesday.

"We're going to teach him to settle back in the field to make sure he does the same thing on Tuesday, to give him the best chance on Tuesday," Cummings said.

"He'll be mid-field with cover.

"All the jockey has to do is ride him like he's been trained and bred.

"If we can get him to relax in the Mackinnon the two miles [3200m] will be right up his alley on Tuesday."

All eyes on So You Think this afternoon please.