Any business is only as good as its staff, as Tom Dabernig noted after a bumper weekend for his Warrnambool stable.
Dabernig followed a pair of Group 2 winners at Caulfield on Saturday with another double at Horsham on Sunday.
Saturday’s winners were $3 favourite Cavalry Girl in the Henley Homes Sprint (1000m) and Shadhavar ($3.60) in the Tristarc Stakes (1400m), both ridden by Craig Williams. 
Dabernig’s Horsham winners were Strength Within ($2.45) in an 1100-metre maiden and Bazzar ($2.30 favourite) in a benchmark 62 over the same trip. Linda Meech had the winning rides on both.
“Our staff work extremely hard,” Dabernig said. “They work long hours and they’re very dedicated to their jobs. The wins are a reward for their hard work and commitment. 
“We’re only as good as our staff and believe me they are excellent.”
Dabernig said Cavalry Girl and Shadhavar would now be set for races over the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival.
“It’s great to have two exciting horses in the stable, especially at this time of the year.”
Dabernig described three-year-old filly Strength Within and four-year-old gelding Bazzar as progressive types.
Folk forges on
Illowa-bred galloper Just Folk took his stake earnings past $2.19 million with his third placing in last Saturday’s rich King Charles III Stakes at Randwick. 
The Gavin Bedggood-trained 10-year-old picked up $425,000 in prizemoney for his third to champion mare Autumn Glow. 
Former long-serving Warrnambool Racing Club clerk of the course Leo Dwyer and his late wife Maureen bred Just Folk, who was originally trained by their grandson Josh Julius. 
Julius won six races with Just Folk before Bedggood purchased him in an online auction for $199,000 in July 2023. 
Just Folk’s 25 starts for Bedggood have yielded four wins, 12 placings and more than $1.4 million. 
Jacko eyes derby
Warrnambool three-year-old King Snitz raced into calculations for Saturday week’s $3 million Victoria Derby with a bob-of-the-head victory in the $240,000 Group 3 Sportsbet Classic at Caulfield last Saturday.
With Damian Lane in the saddle, the Shane Jackson-trained Snitzel colt started a $16 chance, raced on pace and hung on to beat Vallice by a short head.
Jackson, who also has stables at Flemington, said the derby was always the aim.
“We’ll see how he pulls up,” he said. “The horse always comes first. 
“We’ll take him back down to the beach (Lady Bay) and then put him in cotton wool to see if he’s right for the Derby. 
“The further he goes, the better he’ll be. 
“He’s a beautiful horse. He’s the first horse that Tony (Ottobre, owner) sent down to me. He was unbroken, a little weed of a thing but bred in the purple. He’s still growing and will only be better again in the autumn.”
King Snitz won his maiden at Warrnambool last month. 
Jackson’s stable is enjoying a good run. He had two winners — Secret Crossing and Princess Sakko — at Avoca last Saturday, following an impressive win by High Falls at Warrnambool two days earlier.
Tike too good
Warrnambool trainer Symon Wilde added the Avoca Cup to his record when Tikemyson won the $40,000 race on Saturday. Ridden by Jack Hill, Tikemyson ($7.50) defeated Scalextrics by half a length in the 1860-metre feature.
Wilde said Tikemyson might have his next start in a restricted race at the Flemington carnival.
“If we don’t go down that path there’s a race like the Kyneton Cup,” he said. 
“He’s been an honest type of horse. A few runs back he won the Sheep Hills Cup. He seemed to overrace in the Hamilton Cup last week but everything went to plan at Avoca.”
From his 39 starts Tikemyson has won $257,777 in stakes.
Black-booker
First Innings: Huge effort to run second on Horsham Cup day. The tight-turning track didn’t help, as he was caught wide. The Harry Lafferty-trained gelding should be hard to beat in similar company next time, but sadly he’ll be a lot shorter than the $21 chance he was on Sunday.