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By Ray Hickson

Trainer James Cummings sees barrier one as a small stumbling block for emerging sprinter Pisanello at Kembla Grange on Saturday but says the gelding is very much a horse on the way up.

Trainer James Cummings (Pic: Bradley Photos)

He was able to overcome barrier one down the Flemington straight in his second-up win but if the inside holds up as expected with a likely good surface then the Godolphin head trainer would charge into the Traffic Logistics Handicap (1000m) with a degree of confidence.

Pisanello, $2.60 with TAB on Thursday, is unbeaten in two starts this spring, and has now won four of his 10 starts, and Cummings would like to think the best is yet to come.

“He’s ready to continue to progress through the grades,’’ Cummings said on SEN.

“He’s a tough, well built, horse who looks like he should be able to carry the weight now he’s up in the weights for the sake of those wins.”

The four-year-old impressed Cummings with how he handled his first time down the straight, especially given it was the final race of the carnival and he had to find the better part of the track from that inside barrier.

He rises to 60kg but that’s offset to a degree by Adam Hyeronimus reuniting with Pisanello, he won on the gelding at Scone earlier this year.

“He really lifted, he loved the challenge, he was up and about in the early stages of that race but he switched off once he found a backside to follow,’’ Cummings said of Pisanello’s Flemington win.

“I loved to see the turn of foot he showed, he’s a progressive horse.

“The trip down and back does not seem to have put a dent in the horse’s exuberance and a healthier looking horse at Osborne Park you will not find.”

Fellow four-year-old Fleetwood kicks off what Cummings hopes will be a fruitful summer campaign in the Group 3 $300,000 Snap Print Solutions The Warra (1000m).

Fleetwood won three of his five starts in the winter and while he’s been fitted with two barrier trials there’s a small warning from Cummings that there’s improvement to come.

“I can envisage the horse winning the race but I do also believe that he’ll be better for the run,’’ he said.

“He’s up against it at the weights, it’s not an easy ask for the horse to tackle these horses. We knuckled down to 53kg but he’s still a bit out of the handicap.”

What Cummings would like to see in the Warra is a genuine 1000m tempo to help Fleetwood negate the outside barrier.

“Fleetwood could get it done from his wide barrier but I could also imagine him warming to the task, running a really good race here and being well set up for the rest of the prep,’’ he said.

Pisanello wins at Warwick Farm on October 23

“It’ll be interesting to see how much pace goes on in a race like this to give him as much chance as possible because it looks like it could be controlled by a couple of horses that go forward and control it from the front.”

James Cummings on Restonica (race 10): “One thing I like about that horse is he’s slightly back to 1200m with a gap between runs. Maybe a stretch in distance has not been to his liking. I’d like to see him get a good run from the draw, I think he can manufacture a good run from there. He should enjoy getting back there (to Kembla) and chiming in, really flooding home, up the middle to be in the mix.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Kembla Grange meeting