Australian rental company owner Laurence Eales won Australia’s prestigious Melbourne Cup race with his horse Shocking.

Eales owns EA Hire, one of Australia’s largest rental companies, which he built from a one-man, one excavator operation, into a multi-facility operation.

Eales began buying horses four years ago, according to Australian Internet reports, when he bought his first horse Rednex. Shocking has now won more than AU $3.8 million (about U.S. $3.5 million).

Eales typically picks the horses himself that he wants to buy.