However, he has found a star in Duais from the Irwin and Harris families, who will support him for the rest of his career. There is no pressure from Pete Harris or Matt Irwin, who are enjoying every moment of their racing dream.

“He was a prop and I’m an old second-rower; we like beers and we like racing as we decided to buy a mare together a few years back,” Irwin says, stepping back in time. “We asked Sue Grills at Tamworth and she found Meerlust, which we paid 22 grand for, and we raced her together. She had bad knees but a bit of ability.

″⁣So we decided to breed from her and we have had Baccarat Baby and now Duais. We wanted to find a young trainer and Ed fits that bill after I met him, and we couldn’t have got a better trainer for Duais. We are still pinching ourselves.″⁣

Cummings remembers Duais arriving at the stable, and within a couple of months he knew the Shamus Award filly had talent and good breeding. Success wasn’t immediate for Duais. It took three runs for Duais to break her maiden – another three to win again – but it was part of the education process of a quality stayer. Every step was measured by Cummings.

″⁣A couple of months after she arrived Baccarat Baby won the Sunshine Coast Guineas,″⁣ Cummings says. ″⁣All of a sudden we had a half-sister to a stakes winner in the barn and we knew she had a little bit under the hood. You go back and look at her first trials, she was raw and leggy, but there was always something there.″⁣

Duais won midweek and then stepped up to give Cummings his first black-type win in the Adrian Knox Stakes, before being the runner up in the Australian Oaks to Hungry Heart. Cummings waited another seven weeks and has her spot to win the Queensland Oaks.

She won a Coogny Stakes in the spring, but was still developing into the complete stayer she is now, all along giving Cummings confidence.

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Cummings planned the Australian Cup run into the Tancred and the Sydney Cup with 51kg looms. His confidence is shared by jockey Josh Parr, who stretched away from rivals on her at Flemington last start.

″⁣For a stayer she possesses a turn of speed which is quite impressive,″⁣ Parr said. ″⁣I don’t see the trip [in the Tancred] being a problem for her because she is such a relaxed mare.

″⁣She has a real efficient stride and what I mean by that is that when she finds her rhythm she can cover ground really easily and it feels effortless. It will be testing 2400m with the rain predicted, it will be a heavy track, but I have full confidence in her ability to run the trip strongly.″⁣