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It is the tale of two mares for James Cummings as he heads to Eagle Farm on Saturday. One, Sultry Feeling, will run her final race in the Tatts Tiara, while another, Shamalia, will continue her career via the Healy Stakes.
Both are double-figure chances in betting, but would be the types that punters could say "I should have been on that" if they win.
The Tiara has become a great way to finish a career for talented mares and for Sultry Feeling it will give her the chance to increase her value with a group 1 win to add to a couple of group 3 wins at the Sydney carnival.
Cummings has carefully placed Sultry Feeling and waited a long time to test her at the top level.
She copped the backwash of the fall in the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville last month and finished midfield, so Cummings was keen to have another crack at a group 1 before she visits Hallowed Crown at stud.
"It [the fall] just put her out of business," he said. "In group 1 races you need everything to go right, and it didn't. She has been a very good mare for her entire career, but we waited until now to run in a group 1. I just want to see her have a proper crack at a group 1.
"She won her second start as a two-year-old and then placed in the Magic Night Stakes. She really went within a short margin of running in a Golden Slipper.
"She has black-type form at two, three and four. She has two group 3 wins this preparation in Sydney at our best carnival, so it is worth trying to get that group 1 form to go with that.
"We know she has an electrifying turn of foot and has beaten a group 1 winner in Peeping this preparation, so she is not out of place."
Sultry Feeling has been in the stable since Cummings joined in partnership with his late grandfather Bart and holds a special place for him. He has watched her develop, but he knows he will be seeing her sons and daughters from Gooree Stud.
"She is an Encosta [De Lago] mare and they are worth their weight in gold at stud," Cummings said.
Cummings has had great success for Gooree, preparing Golden Rose and Randwick winner Hallowed Crown with his grandfather and his first group 1 winner in his own right, Prized Icon, which won the Champagne Stakes earlier in the year.
Shamalia will don the silks of Dato Tan Chin Nam in the Healy Stakes, a race in which the up and down mare is capable of causing a shock.
"She is going to race on," Cummings said. "Her record tells us that she is a hot and cold mare and we could see her bouncing back here. She is drawn awkwardly, but will get back and you have to pay attention to how the track will race."
