3 minute read

James McDonald has been tasked with turning around the fortunes of Sunborn.

Stable star Duais might be in the spelling paddock, but Edward Cummings is keen to continue making inroads in Sydney and he is hoping Sunborn can land another blow for his team at Randwick.

Sunborn will tackle a new-look Midway Handicap (1100m), the regular Saturday fixture restricted to fillies and mares this week, and Cummings sees it as an ideal opportunity for his charge.

The four-year-old has three wins and two placings from 14 starts but Cummings says she has been plagued by bad luck and her record should read much better.

With that in mind, he has booked James Mcdonald in the hope the star jockey can take bad luck out of the equation.

"It's the right race for her," Cummings said.

"She normally runs well fresh and the only times she hasn't figured in the placings are when she has been terribly unlucky, and unfortunately that has been in about three-quarters of her race starts.

"That's a large part of the reason we got James on and drawing well means we should be a bit closer in the run, bide our time and pounce at the right time.

"I think she is a very good horse and she has just been beset by poor luck."

Cummings has also accepted with the recently gelded Prompt Prodigy in the Ranvet Handicap (1400m) but isn't keen to start him on a heavy track.

He is also entered for the Kensington meeting on Monday and has options next weekend so Cummings will wait and see how the track comes up on race morning before deciding where to kick him off.

Sunborn is part of an incredible book for McDonald, who is riding eight of the 10 favourites with Sunborn at $5.50 the longest priced of his mounts.