It was the phone call all parents dread.
Two weeks ago, young trainer Cassandra Stummer and her partner, jockey Daniel Northey, had just celebrated a win at Wauchope and were making the 3-1/2 hour drive back to Muswellbrook when Stummer’s phone rang.
Their 18-month old son, Ace had been in an accident and needed to be flown to Westmead Children’s Hospital in Sydney.
“We were coming home from the races and I got a phone call saying he had poured a cup of tea over himself and he was being airlifted to Westmead,” Stummer said.
“We’ve been up and back (to Sydney) since then, so it has been a really hard couple of weeks for us.”
Thankfully, Ace is recuperating well and Stummer will get the chance to take some time out from hospital visits to enjoy the biggest moment of her career when she saddles up Shine Your Light in the $1 million Golden Gift (1100m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
The filly had trouble securing clear galloping room when an eye-catching third to Saturday’s rival Barber in the Kirkham Plate (1000m) on debut and Stummer expects the extra 100m journey to be ideal.
Back of mind is also the fact that the first and second placegetters in the Golden Gift usually bank enough prizemoney to secure a Golden Slipper start.
“We would probably have to pay the late entry fee (to run in the Slipper), but if she can be competitive in this race and get money in the bank, I don’t see why we can’t give that a shot,” she said.
“That is a little bit of a dream.”
Stummer took out her trainers’ licence three years ago, combining it with her business pre-training horses, among them last Saturday’s Golden Eagle runner Chain Of Lightning.
Prominent racing identity John Ramsey, the owner and breeder of Shine Your Light, has been one of her biggest supporters and the two-year-old is also a sentimental horse to him, having been named after his late sister’s favourite song.
“He has been a huge part of our training career,” Stummer said of Ramsey.
“John keeps ringing me every day saying, ‘how is the filly?’ and I’m like, ‘she’s making me nervous!’”
“But this is what you wake up for, to go and compete in these bigger races.
“Hopefully our luck has changed a bit and she can run a good race for us.”