It was no surprise that Bendigo trainer Josh Julius woke up with a sore head on Sunday morning.
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He backed that up on Saturday with another impressive first starter in Just Folk, who stormed home to win on debut at Echuca at double-figure odds.
"Yeah, the head is a bit sore today, but it's not for the reason you think,'' Julius admitted on Sunday.
"My eight-month-old daughter kept me up and my fiancée Kassie is recovering from a shoulder reconstruction. That's life."
Life is good for Julius and his stable clients.
Piscatorial couldn't have been more impressive on Friday, while Just Folk's win at Echuca had to be seen to be believed.
The three-year-old was slow out of the barriers and was three lengths off the second-last horse coming to the 600m mark.
He was still last coming around the home turn before unleashing an impressive turn of foot to reel in the Patrick Payne-trained Villa Villekulla.
"I thought Just Folk would give a good account of himself,'' Julius said.
"With all the COVID rules and that sort of stuff, the horse had never left Bendigo before Saturday.
"All his trials had been in Bendigo and he'd never been in the back of the truck. We knew he had ability, but it was just a matter of how he handled the day.
"You could argue he didn't put it all together after the way he started the race...but once (jockey) Jarrod (Fry) gave him a whack around the bum he did the rest.
"It's not often you see horses come from last in an 1100m race at Echuca, so that's a good sign for us going forward."
Making the victory even sweeter for Julius was the fact Just Folk was bred by his grandparents.
The horse is related to Group One winner Tears I Cry.
"All his family, as a rule, have taken a while to get going and haven't really started until they were four,'' Julius said.
"Tears I Cry never started racing until he was four. For this horse to be up and going as a three-year-old defies his family trend which is very exciting for us."
With the lucrative spring carnival just around the corner, Julius has some planning to do with his talented two young horses.
"We're a bit up in the air at the moment with what we do,'' Julius said.
"We just wanted to see how they dealt with the experience, but after they performed so well we can now dive into the calendar with some confidence to find some races for them.
"Piscatorial is only two, so she, potentially, has a three-year-old spring in front of her which would be pretty cool.
"Just Folk is only three for another month, so if the right restricted race bobs up in town for him we might have to take that opportunity while it's there."
Julius' stable star Super Girl is back in work after a short lay-off.
The staying mare will be set on a path aimed at the Melbourne Cup in November.
"The aim is to have her run third-up in the Bart Cummings and if she wins that she'll be in the Melbourne Cup," Julius said.
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