Josh Julius isn’t complaining, but the abundant post-Melbourne Cup Week options now available have provided him with a dilemma as to what to do with his stable star Just Folk.
The six-year-old was among the nominations for the Cranbourne Cup when entries for the $500,000 Listed event closed on Monday.
But Julius entered the spring thinking the following weekend’s $1 million The Gong (1600m) was the perfect feature for him this spring.
On the same day is the $500,000 Listed Ballarat Cup (2000m), which Julius has not ruled out considering how well Just Folk has performed under big weights in 1800-metre races at his past two starts.
The Bendigo horseman will make a decision on whether he runs this week after studying the Cranbourne Cup entries, which include Group 1 winner Callsign Mav, the classy Ironclad, last year’s runner-up Our Playboy, Sale Cup winner Uncle Bryn and promising import Visinari, and seeing how he works on Tuesday morning.
“We’re very much undecided, but we’ve got plenty of options with him and we’re just going to cross every T and dot every I and let him tell us,” Julius said.
“He’ll have a gallop tomorrow and that’ll let us know whether he’s ready.”
Just Folk has finished second at his past three starts, all at Black Type level, starting with a half-length defeat at the hands of Noname Lane in the Listed Seymour Cup (1600m).
He beat home all bar multiple Group 1 winner Cascadian in the Group 3 Craven Plate (2000m) before a narrow defeat at the hands of Bartholomew Dias under 60kg in the Listed Cup Day Plate (1800m) at Flemington last Tuesday.
“Last start we obviously knew we were up against it giving five and six kilos to the rest of the field and drawing an outside gate, but he’s a big momentum horse and when you’ve got that much of a weight swing on everyone you need that momentum,” Julius said.
“Hughy (Bowman) gave him the perfect steer and he was honest as ever but unfortunately, as seems to be the pattern of the preparation, he found one better.
“He’s going awfully well and he’s terrifically consistent so we’ll just keep him in his routine at home and produce him when he’s ready to go.”
Just Folk is $6 second favourite in TAB’s All-In Cranbourne Cup market, which is headed by Visinari with Ironclad, Our Playboy and Uncle Bryn sharing the $8 third line.