Luca Cumani

News needs to be special if it is going to knock the horses off the top spot, even for a short while, during Breeders' Cup week. The story which was able to do that was the announcement of Frankie Dettori's imminent retirement and his plans for the future. That is understandable because Frankie has been big news throughout his fabulous career. Arriving in Newmarket aged 14 in 1985 to join the stable of his compatriot Luca Cumani, Frankie was already an experienced and race-winning rider in Italy by the time...

Luca and Sara Cumani put the sugar on top of what has been one of the sweetest success stories of the week at Tattersalls when their Fittocks Stud-consigned Wootton Bassett colt sold to Godolphin for 1.9 million gns on the third and final day of the Book 1 October Yearling Sale.  The Wootton Bassett colt became Fittocks Stud's third seven-figure sale this week and followed on from the 2.2 million gns and 1.3 million gns achieved with colts by Frankel and Dubawi respectively.  All told, Fittocks Stud has sold four...

Bloodstock agent Will Douglass has joined Ocala Breeders' Sales Company as the company's international representative. Douglass, who began his career as a bloodstock agent in January 2010 when he started working with industry veteran Charlie Gordon-Watson, has also served as assistant to trainers Luca Cumani, Ed Dunlop, and David Hayes. He established Will Douglass Bloodstock in January, advising clients on all aspects of private sales, auction purchases, bloodstock, and racing management. "I am looking forward to working with the team at OBS and helping them expand their international client base,"...

After a stormy first day of 2025, Newmarket Heath was bathed in frost-speckled sunlight by January 2, but local trainer Rae Guest is now setting his sights on sunlit uplands of a different kind.  This he is doing in his usual quiet way, to the extent that his decision to call time on his training career took even some of his longest-standing owners by surprise when he contacted them prior to making an official announcement in December. The prophetic victory, two days after the news broke, of his filly Sunlit...

Group 1-winning globetrotter Falbrav (Ire) (Fairy King-Gift Of The Night, by Slewpy) died at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan on Friday, Netkeiba reported on Saturday. The eight-time Group 1 winner, who was pensioned in 2015, was 26. "Falbrav passed away at the age of 26 in Shadai Stallion Station, Japan," the Japanese news site posted on X. "Rest in peace." Eisuke Tokutake, manager of Shadai Stallion Station, told Sanspo.com, "He had a little colic and was a little sick since the end of last year." Bred by Azienda Agricola Francesca...

Christophe Clement has revealed that his first runners at Royal Ascot did not perform as he had hoped but shared how G1 Coronation S. disappointment Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock) could bid to bounce back to form at Saratoga later this month. Pizza Bianca, whose owner-breeder is celebrity chef Bobby Flay, has returned to America after her eighth-place finish in the Coronation.  Clement admitted that he was "slightly disappointed" with that effort but is confident that there is more to come from his Breeders' Cup winner back on home soil. "Of...

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is excited to swap his apron for a top hat and tails at Royal Ascot and described his bold bid for G1 Coronation S. glory with Breeders' Cup-winning homebred Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) as "an experience of a lifetime." The Coronation S. has been the main aim for Pizza Bianca ever since she stormed to victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar last November and Flay has said that next week's royal meeting is the pinnacle. "I feel like I...

Former Classic-winning trainer Luca Cumani has recently been honoured with the Order of the Star of Italy, an award akin to a knighthood presented to Italians deemed to have promoted the nation abroad. Cumani has resided in England since 1973, having started as an assistant to Henry Cecil before embarking on his own training career in Newmarket three years later. Following his retirement from the training ranks at the end of 2018, he has focused his attention on Fittocks Stud, which he runs with his wife Sara. The Cumanis took...

The US Jockey Club's announcement of an impending cap on the number of mares a stallion can cover has received a mixed reaction among breeders in Britain and Ireland. As reported in yesterday's TDN, colt foals born in 2020 who eventually retire to stud will be restricted to covering 140 mares in a season. No limit will be set for stallions already at stud or for those born before 2020. The US Jockey Club figures for 2019 show that 43 stallions served books of more than 140 mares. In Britain...