Ballarat trainer Matt Cumani, who has a proven track record with stayers, is pinning his hopes on Autumnheat emulating past successes.

Cumani is looking for the five-year-old gelding to follow the path of Team Captain, who triumphed in the Australian Heritage Cup (2800m) in 2021. The plan is for Autumnheat to use two recent wins as a launching pad for the secondary staying event at Flemington on Tuesday, five years after Team Captain’s win.

Autumnheat showcased his current form with a victory in a benchmark 84 race at Caulfield over 2400m on October 14. Cumani believes the increased distance for the upcoming race should suit the horse.

“It is a bit of a concern just because everything in his last race was perfect,” Cumani commented. “The rail was out a fair way and it was a Caulfield, a nice tight leaders track, and Flemington is a completely different story plus the extra step in distance to 2800 is tricky.”

He added, “But, I am hopeful the rest of the jockeys let us do our thing and go to the lead but, frankly, I think they would be mad to take us on early. My horse just won’t stop so I think they will just have to let us go and if we can do a steadily improving tempo throughout which hopefully we can get him off the bridle like we did last start.”

Autumnheat has compiled a solid record of four wins and four placings from 18 starts, achieving a career-high Racing and Sports rating of 96.

“He is a horse I’ve always liked,” Cumani explained. “I ran him in the Victoria Derby when he was a three-year-old but unfortunately he had a known wind problem then and we had to operate on that. He had run so well in the Vase before that so we had to give it a go.”

Cumani concluded with a warning, “He was never going to stay with that issue but now with that operation done, he can keep getting better and better. Anyone who is going to take us on for the lead on Tuesday is on a suicide mission.”

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