Anthony Cummings had to pay a little more than anticipated for She’s Extreme as a yearling, but it will be money well spent if she can win him his first Golden Slipper.
The Randwick trainer, renowned for having a good eye for a horse, first spied the filly being prepared for a sale in January and instantly liked what he saw.
“I went and saw her when she was getting ready for the January sale and I liked her a lot and I was hoping she would go through that sale because I thought she would be cheap there,” Cummings said.
“Anyway, they didn’t put her through. She had a few little things they had to sort out.
“She turned up at Easter and was probably $100,000 more than what I thought she’d be.”
Cummings paid $275,000 to secure the daughter of Extreme Choice, whose price reflected the subsequent Golden Slipper victory by another of the stallion’s progeny, Stay Inside, which significantly boosted the sub-fertile sire’s popularity.
She’s Extreme is already well on the way to repaying the outlay, banking more than $133,000 in three starts and securing her residual value with a dashing victory in the Group 3 Magic Night Stakes last weekend.
Cummings is confident she is resilient enough to handle a seven-day back-up and end his hoodoo in a race that has delivered its share of tough love to the Randwick trainer.
In 2004, Cummings’ talented filly Ballybleue became ill in the lead-up and didn’t get to the race, then two years later, Casino Prince started an equal favourite but had his chances cruelled when he threw a shoe shortly after the start.
Cummings’ biggest heartbreak came in 2011 when the horse regarded as arguably his best Golden Slipper chance, Smart Missile, was controversially scratched at the barrier.
It is little wonder Cummings feels he and the race have unfinished business.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“(I’ve had) lots of favourites and placings and been thereabouts. And the good thing got scratched at the barrier, Smart Missile.
“But she has done what I thought she would do from the first time I saw her. It’s nice when it works out as simply as that.”
She’s Extreme is an $8.50 chance to turn around her trainer’s Golden Slipper fortunes.
