Just Fine wins the Bart Cummings at Flemington (Picture: Racing Fotos)
Big Johannesburg-based owner Larry Nestadt is a shareholder in Melbourne Cup contender Just Fine, an Irish-bred Sea The Stars gelding trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
He said, “He must have a chance if he stays.”
Just Fine won the Gr 1 Metropolitan over 2400m at Randwick last year and this year won the Gr 3 Bart Cummings over 2520m at Flemington.
He lay handy in the Metropolitan before challenging the pacemaker and getting the better of the latter in a duel for the line.
In the Bart Cummings he led and just held on.
He disappointed in his last start in a Gr 2 over 2500m at Moonee Valley when leading again and weakening in the straight to finish last.
Just Fine’s underwhelming performance in that race puzzled Waterhouse, but she said Just Fine was not your normal racehorse.
She said the day after that race, “He was terrible, and I can’t understand it as we thought he had a fabulous chance,” Waterhouse said of Just Fine’s last placing, some 10 lengths from the winner Okita Soushi.
“He’s a funny horse,” she continued. “He went to Caulfield and spat the dummy and ran shockingly, then he came here last night and spat the dummy and ran the same way.
“You put him at Flemington, you put him at Randwick, the bigger tracks, I don’t know what it is, he just seems happier.
“He licked the bin last night and that made it all the more annoying. Flemington is a different thing. He’s not under lights, all those things just upset him. It upset me.”
Larry Nestadt pointed out the Melbourne Cup was nearly half-a-mile further than Just Fine had ever raced before, so that must be a bit of a concern.
However, the yard appear to be confident of a good run.
Larry was a major shareholder in a Melbourne Cup runner last year, Military Mission, who finished tenth.
He does not have as big a share in Just Fine, but his name is one of the entites in the ownership.
The horse was originially owned by Queen Elizabeth II and raced for King Charles III.
He has made the news because one of the ownership entities in him called the My Racehorse No. 1 Syndicate have 1600 members who all have a share in the horse for a once off payment of Aus$250.
To pay that amount to have a Melbourne Cup runners has allowed the ordinary man to have an experience usually reserved for the wealthy, the lucky or the famous and is one of the reasons Australian racing is thriving.
Just Fine is a 33/1 shot with Hollywoodbets.
The Cup is due to start at 06H00 SA Time.
