James Cummings says he has no intention of trying to “reinvent the wheel” as he prepares for his first season as a Hong Kong trainer – and says that adapting to the handicap system, not chasing star horses, will define the type of trainer he becomes.
Speaking to Michael Cox on the Idol Horse Podcast, Cummings said the core philosophy behind his training “won’t be that different”, but that he’ll change where Hong Kong demands it. “Gone are the days that you can walk around aiming for a twenty to twenty-five percent strike rate. That’s just not gonna happen in Hong Kong because that’s not the system.”
Pointing to Caspar Fownes’ premiership-winning season with a stable rated largely under sixty, Cummings said the handicap is a trainer’s ally, not an obstacle, calling Hong Kong’s system brilliant. “It gives the owners their chance … the handicap system is there to help me too. I won’t be frightened to run horses.”
And the biggest lesson from watching Fownes? It isn’t about the horses at all. “The best horses in his stable are his team of people.”
Cummings, who begins his Hong Kong career one-out with no retiring trainer’s stable to inherit, said he’s bracing for a slow build: “My success or failure won’t be dictated just by season one.”
Full interview on the Idol Horse Podcast. ∎
