12-time Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Bart Cummings dies - SI.com
SYDNEY (AP) Bart Cummings, one of Australia's most successful racehorse trainers who won the Melbourne Cup a record 12 times, has died at the age of 87. Cummings' grandson and training partner James said in a statement that Cummings died in his... ''His final moments were spent with his family and wife of 61 years, Valmae, with whom he celebrated their anniversary on Friday,'' the family statement said. Cummings had been in poor health recently and rarely ventured from his farm in recent years. He won his first Melbourne Cup with Light Fingers in 1965 and his last with Viewed in 2008. In 1965, 1966, 1974, 1975 and 1991, Cummings trained both the first- and second-place horses in Australia's richest and most prestigious race. He trained 266 Group One winners and had 758 stakes victories among nearly 7,000 winners. He also won numerous other top Australian races: seven Caulfield Cups, five Cox Plates and four Golden Slippers. He was made a member of the Order of Australia in 1982 for his services to the racing industry, and was later inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. During the torch relay for the 2000 Sydney Games, Cummings carried the Olympic torch down the straight at Flemington race track in Melbourne. Rest in peace, Cups King,'' Flemington said on its Twitter feed early Sunday. Source: www.si.com
