Victorian trainer Gavin Bedggood praying Brisbane's big wet continues for wet-tracker Just Folk

News.com.au

25-04-2025

Victorian trainer Gavin Bedggood has been performing a rain dance this week as he prepares veteran gelding Just Folk for the $300,000 Brisbane Mile at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
The wet weather continues to plague South East Queensland this week, not that Bedggood will mind at all, with a heavy track this weekend a distinct possibility.
TAB was offering a 'crazy price' of $9 on Wednesday for topweight Just Folk to win the Brisbane Mile, behind Port Lockroy ($4.40) and local mare Miss Joelene ($4.60).
But with the rain tumbling down in Brisbane, that price had plummeted to $5.50 for Just Folk on Friday morning.
'If that track is proper heavy, you wouldn't get many better wet-trackers in Australia than him,' Bedggood said about Just Folk.
'You go through his form card, on heavy ground it's seven starts for three wins and two placings and on soft ground he's had 17 starts for five wins and eight placings.
'Then you look at his good form and he's 23 starts for two wins and three placings.
'He's not the same horse on a good surface and at the level he's racing now, he needs things to suit and that's why he's made his way to Brisbane.'
Just Folk finished a disappointing 17th in this month's $4m Doncaster Mile at Randwick, in a race won by Stefi Magnetica, but Cranbourne trainer Bedggood was willing to forgive that result.
'He was very good winning the Doncaster Prelude (at Rosehill over 1500m on April 1) when they went along at a good gallop and they got wet conditions (Soft 7 track),' he said.
'In the Doncaster it was a drying track and they went very slow. He was going low 11s the day he won (the Prelude) but they were running sub 12s in the Doncaster Mile.
'On drying ground in that class of race he needs to run up to his best but the race wasn't run to suit him whatsoever.'
Bedggood said Just Folk would also contest the $500,000 Group 2 Hollindale Stakes (1800m) on the Gold Coast on May 10, which was a 'line-in-the-sand' run for whether he pushes on to the Group 1 $1m Doomben Cup (2000m) two weeks later or goes to the Group 3 Lord Mayor's Cup (1800m) on May 31 which he won last year at Eagle Farm.
Ryan Maloney, who triumphed in the 2024 Brisbane Mile on Mighty Ulysses for Annabel Neasham, will ride Port Lockroy, who finished ninth in the Doncaster Mile.
Neasham trains four-year-old stallion Port Lockroy in partnership with her now husband Rob Archibald, with the power couple tying the knot on Thursday.
Cejay Graham will be hoping to make it back-to-back victories on Miss Joelene, who won impressively on a soft track at Doomben over 1350m on April 16.
'It's not ideal but not much you can do about it when they keep calling off races (due to the rain),' trainer Kelly Schweida said about the quick turnaround for his mare.
'She needs to keep improving. You'd seem to think a Caloundra Cup (over 2400m on July 5) would suit her but I don't know.
'It's so hard because every time you pick up a paper and listen to the radio, there's another (star southern) horse coming through to all the big races.
'I'll take it step by step but she can run the trip and she can handle soft ground. That helps but her (winter carnival) program will depend on what horses are coming up.'