Hot streaks helps trainer Enver Jusufovic through ‘excruciating’ hamstring injury

Enver Jusufovic was laid up in bed last week when unbeaten Mytemptation won at Flemington, but he hopes to be at Caulfield on Saturday to watch another of his in-form home-breds.

Trainers go to great lengths to care for horses.

Crawling 20m in “excruciating pain” to your car, only then to get in and out again five times to open and close farm gates, was not part of the Enver Jusufovic plan.

Jusufovic was tending to one of his retired ex-racehorses, Lord Ore, when the loveable rogue, now 15, spun around and unbalanced the Group 1 trainer and St Kilda AFL tragic.

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“The legs aren’t what they used to be,” Jusufovic laughed.

“I flung forward and felt my hamstring pop on my right leg, my good leg.

“What’s disappointing is I was in Brownlow betting, the way I was training the house down, but that’s the way it goes.”

Jusufovic has ticked all the boxes for the Victorian Owners and Breeders race day at Caulfield as the sole owner, breeder and trainer of Mixxit in the Country Mile Series Final (1600m).

Jusufovic hopes to be trackside, albeit hobbled, after he watched the promising and still unbeaten four-start home-bred Mytemptation win at Flemington last Saturday from afar, laid up in bed with the suspected hamstring tendon strain.

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“I love my horses and I love not only racing but the breeding side of it as well,” Jusufovic said.

“It’s like they’re paying me back for the faith I’ve had in them, not only in mum but in them as well, it’s extremely gratifying.”

Mixxit resumed with a win at Bendigo earlier this month to extend his streak to four. Picture: Brett Holburt/Racing Photos via Getty Images

Jusufovic uses an owners’ property in Moorooduc to spell racehorses but also house his own broodmares and retired geldings.

“I look after them and feed them every day but they’re not happy being caught sometimes when you need to treat them for an ailment,” Jusufovic said.

“Lord Ore, half-brother to Vongole, was a good horse, he won $100,000 back in the day, but he’s about 15 now. He was always a s--t head even when he was in the stable.”

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Despite the hamstring hiccup Jusufovic has embraced the funny side.

“I got home and I had all this Moorooduc dust on me and I just jumped on top of the bed, I couldn’t shower or anything, I was in so much pain, I was there until the next day,” he said.

“I don’t know if I’m the typical male, unlike women, men are hopeless when it comes to pain.”

Jusufovic, who owned Mixxit’s dam (Mixxer) and grand dam (Athenae), said the “really promising” horse could overcome a wide barrier.

“Certainly I don’t know what the ceiling is with him,” Jusufovic said.

“A real nonchalant character, a lovely big horse, 17 hands, we can ride him from behind, we can ride him forward … he’s quite adept.”

Originally published as Hot streaks helps trainer Enver Jusufovic through ‘excruciating’ hamstring injury