Cranbourne trainer Gavin Bedggood has aimed Just Folk at the Hawkesbury Cup and looks likely to get the soft conditions the seven-year-old revels in on Saturday.
It is just over six months since Bedggood gambled $199,000 on Just Folk, and he has already returned close to $300,000 after he won the Eclipse Stakes in the spring.
Just Folk charges home to win the Eclipse Stakes at Caulfield in December.Credit: Getty
Just Folk is part of an emerging team for Bedggood, who has more than 40 horses in work and is starting to make his name as a trainer with results such as Mornington Glory’s third in the Oakleigh Plate.
“We have had a bit of luck on the tried horse market, and Just Folk was one that I could see still had a bit of racing left in him, even though he had won a Crystal Mile and Ajax Stakes,” Bedggood said. “He enjoys soft ground and had not been overraced, and he hasn’t run a bad race for us since we got him.
“The training started as a bit of a hobby but we have a big team now, and horses like Just Folk and Mornington Glory are getting our name out there.”
Just Folk won the Ajax Stakes on a heavy track before joining Bedggood and added the Eclipse in his first preparation for the new stable along with placings in the Cranbourne Cup and Ballarat Cup.
“He had come to the end of it in the Ballarat Cup, but he was really tough at the end, even though he probably didn’t run the 2000m out,” Bedggood said. “After the spring we targeted this race on the way to Brisbane, and we would back him up in the Hollindale Cup next week if he’s going well.
“He is coming off the best dry-track run of his career, and, if he gets the soft track he likes, he’s going run really well.”
Just Folk’s record makes it clear that wet tracks are where he thrives. Twenty runs on soft or heavy tracks have netted six wins and seven placings, but he has only won once in 19 attempts on a good track.
