JAMES Cummings, the grand-son of the Late Bart Cummings, won his first Group 1 in his own right on Saturday when the Gooree Park-bred Prized Icon was too strong at the end of 1,600 metres to win the $500,000 Champagne Stakes for two-year-olds at Randwick.

Set to head to the paddock after his Fernhill Stakes win a week earlier, Cummings changed tack with Prized Icon, choosing to run. With the scratching of the odds-on favourite Yankee Rose, the race opened up and jockey Glen Schofield did the rest. “He was dominant. He was really, really strong,” said Schofield.