KEY POINTS:
During the Melbourne Cup carnival Bart Cummings was interviewed countless times about his upcoming 80th birthday and possible retirement.
As far as Australia's greatest living racehorse trainer is concerned, the two are simply not connected and after he celebrates the occasion at home today it will be business as usual.
"What could be better than training horses, what else would I do?" was Cummings' standard answer.
It's something he has done better than anyone else except for his great rival, the late TJ Smith, who trained the winners of 279 Group One races. Cummings is currently on 248 with the Mackinnon Stakes victory of Sirmione last Saturday week.
But it is his 11 Melbourne Cup victories that set the "Master" apart and have entrenched him in Australian folklore as the man every once-a-year punter knows as the Cups King.
Cummings is renowned for his one-liners which he utters with a sardonic grin, blue eyes sparkling underneath his famous eyebrows.
It began when a hapless health inspector told a young Cummings he had too many flies in his Adelaide stable to which the trainer famously asked: "How many am I allowed?"
That Cummings remains in the game is testament to his steely determination and resolve to pick himself up after adversity. The first blow to his career came 40 years ago when he was outed for a year after one of his horses showed a marked improvement when wearing blinkers, a new and controversial practice at the time.
"All trainers, no matter how good, go through a battling stage," he reflected.
"It's just a matter of having the determination to go on, and I hoped the breaks would not be long in coming.
"I kept my horses in the weakest of company and myself in the best of company. It's the best recipe for success that I know.
" AAP
