Next week sees two of Australians racing heavyweights clashing in a court battle with claim and counterclaim following the split last year between owner Nathan Tinkler, the coal magnate, and leading Sydney trainer Anthony Cummings. Anthony is fighting claims by Patinack that he worked horses so hard they were unable to race, took sale commissions he should not have and bought horses for Tinkler that were not fit for competition.
The claims were made only after Cummings sought $173,000 from Patinack for unpaid training fees and costs.
In documents filed in the NSW Supreme Court, the horse breeding and training operation run by the mining tycoon Nathan Tinkler, is seeking $6.4 million from Anthony and his companies, Cummings Thoroughbreds and Something Fast. It says this is the loss in value of horses he bought on its behalf and trained until they were broken down or lame, preventing them earning winnings.
But Tinkler refused to pay his outstanding fees, saying Mr Cummings had not performed all the work he was charging for.
In a cross-claim, Patinack alleged Mr Cummings breached his duty of care when training the horses and profited at its expense when he was supposed to be acting for it at sales in 2008, where he allegedly bought more than 100 horses for the company.
Patinack lists 15 thoroughbreds as ''horses that have broken down due to negligence'', including five that allegedly had no chance of racing.
The remaining 10 horses allegedly have a 50 per cent chance of racing, including Siderus, purchased for $2.5 million, and Metallurgical, bought for $2.2 million.
According to Patinack, Cummings had a duty to buy sound horses he thought would eventually win Group 1 races and train them in a way that would not stress or injure them.
Patinack also alleges Mr Cummings wrongly took commissions and fees from sales. This includes $2.8 million from $18.8 million worth of horses he allegedly bought at the 2008 Magic Millions sale, when he was supposed to be buying 58 horses for Patinack at the best possible price.
Anthony says he never took a commission Patinack was not aware of, denies he had a duty to buy only horses with the potential to win and admits purchasing only some of the horses on Patinack's behalf.
Tinkler got the better of Cummings on Saturday at Caulfield with Tinkler’s Not A Pretender beating Anthony’s Merger Benefits.
As they say in the legal columns……the case continues.
