George
Cummins subscribes to the axiom that experience is the best
teacher.
After all, he didn’t win his first training
title at Hastings Park until he was 57 years old and then went
on to capture five more by the time he was 71. He is still going
strong at 78.
Since moving to Vancouver from Seattle in 1971
he has won 942 races, an average of 32.5 wins per season. In
1992 he saddled a then record 66 winners, 56 of them for Dr.
Ken Walters. Five of those winners came on closing day to give
him the title over Frank Barroby.
Although Cummins says he gets most of his fun
out of claimers he has also won 44 stakes races, which puts
him seventh on the all-time Hastings list.
His most talented horse was Coral Isle who
came with him from Longacres in 1971. Cummins developed the
large, gangly colt into a handicap champion as a four-year-old
when he set a track record of 1:32.1 for a mile and a sixteenth.
That record has been equalled but not broken.His favourite horse
Gallant Goalie, who amassed 37 victories at Hastings Park, 31
of them while he was trained by Cummins.
Among his stakes winners are Overtime Victory,
Tis A Spirit, Solander Isle, Commander Bold, Trustwood, Harmony
Islands, Regal Andi and My Boy K.K.
Cummins was born in Bakersfield, California, and spent his ear;y
days in Southern California. When his family broke up he took
a job on a farm in Arcadia, not far from the newly built Santa
Anita racetrack. His first exposure to racing was at the numerous
fair meets in California.After serving time in the United States
Navy during World War II working as a machinist repairing submarines,
he cames to Vancouver in 1947 and raced here three years. He
met and married his wife Patricia during that time and then
moved back to the States.
When his son Jim was born in 1954, he decided
to settle down. He got a machinist job with Boeing Aircraft
and was quickly promoted to quality control supervisor on the
night shift. All the while he continued to train a few horses
at Longacres.His Boeing experience helped him on the racetrack.
He explains “When a plane is going down the runway there
is a point of no return. You either abort the takeoff or you
end up in big trouble. It’s the same with training. You
have to spot the trouble coming so can fix it before something
serious happens. One advantage of being old is that I’ve
probably seen all the problems. I’ve had very few horses
break down over the years.
”Cummins lives within a few blocks of
the track. His usual routine is to get up at four and arrive
at his barn by 4:30. Cummins employs the time that most trainers
spend travelling “puttering around with the horses”
the way a teenager might putter with his car, trying to get
more speed or better mileage.
“Even the smallest thing can make a difference,”
says Cummins.
“I send horses out to the farm only when
something serious has happened. I like to keep them in light
training so don’t lose their basic conditioning. Nature
heals almost everything.”