The world and Australian racing have sadly lost one of it's greatest trainers and characters!

RIP Bart - You'll never be forgotten!

yes NPG, well said friend, I cannot forget think big one of his horses that won the Melbourne cup 2 years in row, a lot of money I collected on both occasions & not to mention saintly $1200 I won on that horse.
A champion trainer in the making I say, your right he will never be forgotten.

R.I.P Legend

A passing of a legend. I've gotten into Australian races the past 10 years and that's where I learned about Bart's greatness. One thing I knew was no matter how bad the form of his horse looked in a big race you had to keep his horse in contention. He always had his horses ready for the big race. Watching the Melbourne Cup and handicapping it it is the hardest race to handicap and Bart won it what? 12 times!

I have no qualms calling him the greatest trainer of all time.

Statistically TJ Smith is ahead of him

Statistically in what way? Can you shed some more light please?

That's a photo finish - and TJ by a nose
But Bart trained in 3 different states - SA, VIC and NSW and starting out in SA which is a handicap in itself.
Probably can't say one was better than the other.

Do you have stats for Colin Hayes?

No disrespect meant but have never heard of this gentleman i will do some research on him and get back yo you

Ok Researched him

He trained 524 Group or Listed winners and 98 Group 1 winners in his Career quite a record but quite a bit behind the
other 2 gentlemen mentioned when talking victories at the highest level

I was thinking about Bart and TJ and the best horses they had. TJ had the mighty Tulloch (with luck the Tulloch doco might be on YouTube) and The King - Kingston Town - 2 absolute freaks of their time in Australian racing.
Bart...well Bart had Let's Elope and Saintly and he was robbed (my belief) with So You Think - Dato Chan the owner sold him off under Bart - I believe if Bart could have trained him in Europe, he would have blitzed everything. Just found some time form ratings of Bart's top ten horses and Galilee was rated 1 from So You Think 2.

Colin Hayes was based in South Australia and for many years was in direct competition with Bart before Bart moved interstate. TJ was based in New South Wales and had no direct competition until Bart arrived.
Colin Hayes had some great horses and his best 2 were the mare So Called and the freak, Dulcify which tragically broke down in the Melbourne Cup.

If you go by Australia's greatest WFA race, The Cox Plate - then TJ is the best but it helps when Kingston Town won it 3 years in a row Well worth checking out those wins on YouTube. The King should have won a Melbourne Cup but his jockey Mal Johnson (as many believe) went for home a little too earlier on the long Flemington home straight.

Bart Cummings and TJ Smith D/H 1st - Colin Hayes 3rd.

Great Bart Cumming Interview with Matt Chapman
He was such a character
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ--P_juqHs …

Thanks for posting up that interview - it was great to watch.
Bart had so many quotes lol - one of my faves is when I think Viewed won the Cup and Bart had a tear in his eye and the journo asked him if he was crying because of the horse/win and he said "No - I'm crying because i didn't have enough on him" lol

Check this small link out for Kingston Town's 3 Cox Plates. Take note of the big bump the jockey Ron Quinton gave the horse on his outside to get The King into the clear as they were topping the straight. He'd be rubbed out for ages and fined heavily if he did that today lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSwbWShXBog

thanks enjoyed watching that

Just heard an interview on the radio with Bart's track work jockey - he said that when So You Think won his first Cox Plate he did so on about 25% lung capacity - sometime after this he had a wind op - which the vet declared that he should now have about 95% lung capacity.