How Saintly, the 'horse from heaven', won the Melbourne Cup 30 years ago

Legendary racing trainer and "Cups King" Bart Cummings rarely showed emotion after big wins or defeats, and he always told people not to get too attached to racehorses.

But even Cummings had exceptions to the rule, and one was the "horse from heaven", Saintly.

The big-striding chestnut gelding with an army of fans gave Cummings a landmark triumph 30 years ago this week in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

Going into the big race, Cummings had already won a record nine Cups (his nearest rival at the time was French trainer Etienne de Mestre back in the 1800s), and his campaign to win a 10th proved to be an absolute masterclass.

In his biography, My Life, Cummings told readers there was no particular secret to winning Melbourne Cups.

"There's no magic," he wrote. "There's relentless work, discipline, adherence to your methods and plans, taking a genuine interest in the horse's welfare and above all else, plain commonsense."

Do all this, Cummings believed, and "you make your own luck".

There may not have been any magic, but there was a plan. A 10,000-metre prep plan, to be precise.

Cummings believed horses that ran in the cup should have completed a series of lead-up runs, and have a total of 10,000m or race distance in their legs before Melbourne Cup day.

A run on Derby Day in the Mackinnon Stakes (2,000m) or the Archer Stakes (2,500m) was usually the cherry on top, training-wise, before the Melbourne Cup three days later.

One person who saw this plan in action up close was Joe Agresta, who was trackwork rider for Cummings for 34 years. When he first saw Saintly for the first time, he wasn't overly impressed.

"He was a nice horse but he was a gangly type of three-year-old," Agresta says.

"Then he came out and he just blitzed them in the Carbine Club Stakes [at Flemington].

"He went back [to Sydney], and [Bart] built him up, then he came back and won the Australian Cup."

Cummings had a beautiful property near the Nepean River in Western Sydney called Princes Farm. The great trainer unofficially referred to it as "horse heaven".

Saintly was bred at Princes Farm and was born there in 1992, the year after Cummings's ninth Cup win with Let's Elope.

When Cummings nearly went bankrupt with the collapse of the Cups King syndicate in the late 1980s, Malaysian businessman Dato Tan Chin Nam was among those who helped support him to keep him afloat.

Chin Nam had owned Think Big, which had won back-to-back Melbourne Cups for Cummings in 1974 and 1975.

When Saintly was born, Cummings gave the businessman a half-share in gratitude for his help.

Saintly's three-year-old season included the Carbine Club Stakes win, and then the Australian Cup win in March 1996 marked another win at Flemington, where his long stride had plenty of room to move.

A few more runs in Sydney followed before Cummings gave Saintly a decent spell. He wouldn't return to the track for nearly five months.

Cummings's lesson learned

For his most important campaign, Saintly was running every couple of weeks in Sydney. After three runs, it was clear Cummings had expectations, but what would come next?

By this time, the permanent jockey had long been Darren Beadman, a top operator who had ridden Cummings's eighth Melbourne Cup winner on Kingston Rule in 1990.

It was early October when Saintly had his fourth and fifth runs, over the space of a weekend at Randwick in Sydney.

The chestnut ran second in the Craven Plate on the Saturday and third in the Metropolitan on Monday, although in the latter race Saintly hit the front but was flat at the end, out-finished by Hula Flight and Nothin Leica Dane.

"Bart rang me and said, 'I'm sending Saintly down [to Melbourne]. I want you to freshen up the horse, I've learned something about him,'" Agresta says.

Saintly was quickly jumping out of his skin, but Cummings didn't want to run him in the Caulfield Cup in mid-October. Instead he aimed him at the Cox Plate.

The two most famous races in Australia are the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup.

The Cox Plate (run over 2,040m) is known as the weight-for-age championship of Australasia, where the race does what it says on the box. Horses are given a certain weight depending on their age, with female horses (fillies and mares) given a discount because they are racing against males (colts, horses and geldings).

Then there is the Melbourne Cup, which is a handicap run over 3,200m. This kind of race sees horses given a weight (or handicap), decided by a range of factors including age and past performances. Generally it sees more weight for better horses and less weight for less experienced runners.

At least until earlier this century, the point of the exercise was to produce a hypothetical result where every runner finished together.

The reality is usually far different, but that's the aim of the game.

Up to 1996, only three horses (Nightmarch in 1929, Phar Lap in 1930 and Rising Fast in 1954) had won both the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup in the same year. 

That year, before it was commonplace, Cummings opted for the Cox Plate as the lead-up for the Melbourne Cup, not the grand final.

The Cox Plate

Some thought the Moonee Valley circuit would be too tight for Saintly. Cummings wanted a solid run in the legs of his star horse of the spring.

When the race began, Beadman kept Saintly quiet back in about sixth place near the fence.

The field began to stretch out. At halfway, he was 10 lengths behind the leaders. Saintly was still sixth 700m out when Beadman began to urge his mount forward.

By the 500, Saintly was making ground going five-wide. Rounding the corner, Filante was leading on the fence narrowly from Juggler then All Our Mob. Saintly went four, five then six-wide as he briefly was on the wrong lead leg.

Watching from the stands, Agresta thought that might be the end of his chances, but once Beadman balanced Saintly up, he moved in. As the crowd roared, the gaps narrowed further, and all four horses were in it. It was Filante leading and Saintly closing.

Saintly rattled down the outside, and they called for a photo as the crowd buzzed about the frantic finish. "From where I was I thought he just got beat, but they said he won," Agresta recalls.

The lesson Cummings had learned was that Saintly didn't back up, so instead of running on Derby Day, the trainer had Agresta gallop him at Flemington.

"The clocker was a guy called Des Spain, and he said to Bart afterwards, 'You know that horse ran a quicker time than [the sprinters] go down the straight [for 1,200],'" Agresta says.

"Bart said something silly like his watch must be broken, but that's when he knew Saintly had a great chance in the Cup."

Chin Nam was fascinated with the game of chess, and so his horses ran in eye-catching colours. The black and white checks were like a chessboard, while the sleeves were gold or yellow to represent the sun.

Would the sun rise on another Cummings Cup win?

The Cup itself

Only three years on from Vintage Crop's famous Flemington win, another Irish-trained horse was favourite for the Cup.

Oscar Schindler had won the Irish St Leger, and come third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, so he was seen as the class horse in the race. But would he handle Australian conditions?

Saintly was not a frontrunner, but he drew barrier three for the Cup. This was a simple set-up for Cummings's horse.

"Bart never gave any instructions, but Darren knew he had to bury him [Saintly] away," Agresta says, meaning a spot on the inside.

Cummings didn't want his horse too close to the lead.

Beadman quickly had Saintly out of the ruck and into position on the fence, and by the time the field thundered past the post the first time, the gelding was neatly placed in sixth, right on the fence.

Grey Shot led from Few Are Chosen, Court of Honour and Centico. Not much changed for much of the race.

At halfway Saintly was perfectly placed, still sixth on the fence. The big chestnut had not spent a penny, until about the 800m, when Beadman shifted him off the fence and in a few strides he was into the clear.

"We were up in the stands watching it, and when Darren Beadman pulled out at the 800, he pulled out three-deep, I said, 'This is home,' because there was no way he'd pull that horse out three-deep if he didn't think it was travelling well," Agresta says.

Grey Shot still led at the turn with Nothin Leica Dane coming, but Saintly was in clear air, and he loved the long Flemington straight.

He hit the front at the 300, and soon after moved clear, as nothing could go with him.

"When Beadman let him down, he just sprinted away. It was a great effort by [Beadman and] the horse, and it was probably Bart's greatest training feat. With this horse, everything he did seemed to work," Agresta says.

Flemington erupted, as Beadman rode Saintly past the post, clear of Count Chivas and Skybeau, to clinch Cummings's 10th Cup.

It was a sign of Cummings's experience, that even 31 years after his first Cup win, he was willing to go away from his tried-and-trusted plan because of his understanding of Saintly.

"When I first started working for him, we won a couple of Group 1s and we were in the mounting yard jumping around," Agresta says.

"[Bart] said, 'Don't be like those other idiots [celebrating wildly]. We celebrate in our own time.'"

But after another Melbourne Cup win, all bets were off.

"We went to Crown Casino [that night], there were about 30 of us," Agresta recalls.

"Bart and Dato Tan Chin Nam were drinking wine, and they started singing Danny Boy!

"It was a good night. Bart never worried too much about being beaten, but I could see it: the relief and the happiness on his face; it was something special [for him] to win the Cup with Saintly."

'He nearly died': Illness in Japan

The next challenge was overseas, with the Japan Cup in Tokyo, less than a month on from the Melbourne Cup. But Saintly would not get to test himself against the best.

Saintly fell ill the night before the race. Vets would not treat the horse without the trainer's permission, because it would mean Saintly could not run in the Japan Cup. Cummings gave the OK.

"The next morning I was crying," Agresta says. "Bart said, 'What's the matter with you?'

"I said, 'I'm devastated.' He said, 'Don’t worry son, it wasn't meant to be.'"

Asked how serious the illness was in Japan, Agresta pauses and says: "He nearly died."

Saintly came back to Australia, and began another campaign at Caulfield in early 1997 in the CF Orr Stakes. Once again he came from behind, still five lengths back at the 250m mark before storming home to win.

But within a week, he had bowed a tendon in training, and that race at Caulfield proved to be his last.

Agresta says Cummings denied that he had a particular love for Saintly, but his actions say otherwise.

"Living Legends wanted him [Saintly] to come there for them to look after him. He [Bart] said no," Agresta says.

"Graham Salisbury wanted him for the clerk of the course. [Bart] said no, 'He's going to live the rest of his life on my property.'"

And he did.

Saintly lived at Princes Farm, or horse heaven if you prefer, until he died in 2016 at the age of 24.

Cummings himself was already gone, dying at his home a year earlier. He had won two more Melbourne Cups, with Rogan Josh in 1999 and Viewed in 2008. Both horses ran on Derby Day.

His Flemington stables are also gone, turned into apartments. But there is still a Saintly Place, fittingly a section of the Flemington course Cummings made his own, complete with a life-sized statue of him.

And while no-one will ever forget the Cups King, neither will anyone who loves racing forget the "horse from heaven".