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While many of Saturday\u2019s Cox Plate contenders were dining out at the Valley\u2019s Breakfast with the Best on Tuesday, small-time Cranbourne trainer Enver Jusufovic was measuring feed for his boutique stable of horses.<\/p>\n
Pinstriped, the rank outsider in Saturday\u2019s race, is the best of his lot, an $80,000 weanling purchase who has become a winner of $1,131,500 in just 18 career starts for the battler trainer.<\/p>\n
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Enver Jusufovic, the Australian trainer with Cox Plate underdog Pinstriped.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n Jusufovic, who goes by the nickname EJ, doesn\u2019t resent the fact he couldn\u2019t send Pinstriped to the Valley on Tuesday for the key lead-up event ahead of his first tilt at a Cox Plate.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like when I do go to the races, I like to wander off on my own and watch it near the public,\u201d Jusufovic says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s where I came from, and I enjoy just taking it all in and having a look at the crowd and seeing what it means to them.\u201d<\/p>\n The son of migrant parents from Bosnia and Slovenia, Jusufovic grew up in Footscray, taking on St Kilda as his favourite football team aged five after they won the 1966 VFL premiership, and idolising champion jockey Roy Higgins. He played trombone in the Hyde Street Band regularly at half-time of matches at Western Oval, and ran onto the ground in 1970 when Ted Whitten played his final game for the Dogs.<\/p>\n Horses like Gunsynd (1972) and Bonecrusher (1986) come to mind when he\u2019s asked his favourite Cox Plate winners.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to ride my bike to Moonee Valley and watch Roy Higgins ride,\u201d Jusufovic says.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to sneak under the fence, and they had a betting ring on the inside of the running rail as well, and I\u2019d get an old lady to put a bet on for me. It was certainly a passion of mine, I really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n Jusufovic\u2019s father worked as a truck driver for Four\u2019N Twenty, and his mother worked in the factory, and as Jusufovic puts it, his father slotted into the Australian way of life \u201cvery, very easily\u201d.<\/p>\n Enver Jusufovic with his horse, and Cox Plate outsider, Pinstriped.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Eddie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d work, go to the pub and have a punt,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s how I got it [the bug]. I used to go to the TAB with him on a Saturday or so, and occasionally, if I had to go get him out of a pub, there\u2019d be an SP there with a place card, and he\u2019d give me one, and I\u2019d fill it out.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, on a Saturday night, you\u2019d watch the trots at the Showgrounds on The Penthouse Club, and<\/i> I\u2019d make sure on a Thursday I\u2019d buy the Truth<\/i> and try and pick the last five winners. I never picked the last five winners ever.<\/p>\n \u201cThe broadcasters, the trainers, the jockeys, the horses, they were cult figures in those days. It was ingrained in me as a young kid living in Footscray at the time that it [the Cox Plate] is such a great race and such a great sport to be involved in.\u201d<\/p>\n Naturally, Jusufovic got his own job at Four\u2019N Twenty when he was old enough to start working.<\/p>\n \u201cI left school and I was playing sport, and I didn\u2019t know where I was going with my life or what I wanted to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI got a job as a driver at Four \u2018N\u2019 Twenty pies, and was there for about four years. But they were really good to me, the people were great, and I believed in the product. Last night I had a Four \u2018N\u2019 Twenty pie, I enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until a chance encounter with Mick Bell, trainer of retired cult horse Jungle Edge, when the idea of actually working in racing became a possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cI met Mick Bell at a milk bar, he actually worked for Tip Top at the time. He had his picnic licence and we got chatting. He said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you come out one day?\u2019,\u201d Jusufovic says.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had a property at Tooradin, so I did, and I got hooked. I started learning to ride horses at a riding school, and then I left my job and got my first job with Greg Eurell, who at the time had one horse in work and was predominantly a breaker and pre-trainer.\u201d<\/p>\n Jusufovic hasn\u2019t trained a group 1 winner, let alone a Cox Plate runner, and even when Pinstriped guaranteed his spot in the race by winning the exempt Feehan Stakes, EJ wasn\u2019t sure he was going to take his place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was doubt,\u201d he says. \u201cAlthough I put a nom in early days, it was more I suppose to keep the owners happy that there was a goal at the end of the spring, if by chance he does have success in the preparation.<\/p>\n Pinstriped has gone from being an $80,000 weanling to a winner of more than $1 million in prizemoney.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Edie Jim<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cOnce he won the Feehan, it came to fruition, and then the goal was the Cox Plate. But it was still one run at a time and see how he pulls up.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just important that I have this horse right. He\u2019s still maturing, even though he\u2019s a five-year-old. If you don\u2019t do it properly, he will lose muscle tone, so it takes a lot of care before he works and a lot of care after he works, and a lot of care in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n While it\u2019s a \u201cchildhood dream, really\u201d to have a Cox Plate starter, Jusufovic \u2013 who pledges to buy a new suit before the race, probably a pinstriped one \u2013 says it won\u2019t change him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m probably one of those, if I was a general in the army, I\u2019d be on the frontline with the troops,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be in the office doing stuff, I\u2019ve got to get out there and muck out a lot of boxes every day. I\u2019m really hands-on; I enjoy walking past the horses and seeing their mannerisms and temperaments during the day and that gives an indication on how they\u2019re coping with the rigours of training.<\/p>\n \u201cFor someone of my stature, where I don\u2019t have a huge clientele, it\u2019s difficult. You\u2019ve got to think about how you do things, and run your business, and prepare a horse to get the best out of it. With the larger stables, it\u2019s obviously a numbers game, whereas with me, I\u2019ve got to make every cent count and do it properly to try and get the support and respect from the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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