A new Melbourne Cup favorite? A surprise jockey contender emerged
Incentivise, a favorite for the Melbourne Cup, is assured of having a gallop between races at Pakenham on Monday as a surprise jockey contender emerged to ride the electrifying racer when the races begin in Melbourne.
At the moment, Glen Boss is still hoping to get a clearance to travel to Victoria to ride the boom stayer during the spring festival. As a result, Incentivise’s original trainer, Steve Tregea from Queensland, who also doubles up as the managing owner, has flagged a new alternative, supposed Boss doesn’t make it.
Incentivise will be on track to race first–up in Group One Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) in September at the Flemington. Moreover, there is an opportunity for Queensland jockey Anthony Allen to ride in case Boss is unavailable.
Craig Williams is also another option, but Allen has the upper hand because he strongly associates with Incentivise and knows the gelding well. Allen rode Incentivise to five of the six successive wins in Queensland when Tregea trained the budding racer.
Furthermore, Allen would easily get to Victoria under the existing COVID-19 border restrictions. However, he would have to quarantine when he returns to Queensland as the COVID-19 situation at the time.
Allen also boasts an excellent career as a rider. He has ridden five feature race winners, with his most notable win being Incentivise in Group Three Tatts Cup. But he has only ridden in a Group One Race once. Tregea revealed that Allen would undoubtedly have an opportunity to ride Incentivise in the first race, giving Thai horse racing enthusiasts an exciting betting opportunity, on leading betting sites like vWin.
The trainer also revealed that he had told Allen, also known as “Ant,” that he would have to be available weeks in advance and ride a bit of work if he were to ride the galloper. He also claimed that it might be challenging, but he was happy with Ant riding Incentivise first-up as long as the owners agree.
It will be clear whether Boss will be allowed into Victoria in the next few days because of the stringent border restrictions. Boss had already been booked to ride the galloper in his spring program through the Melbourne Cup.
Boss is planning to go to the Northern Territory, where he would serve a two-week quarantine period in the Howard Springs facility. This could probably enable him to travel to Victoria. In the meantime, Tregea stated that Incentivise’s new trainer Peter Moody was ready to test the galloper’s ability at his home track at Pakenham.
Incentivise has been dislodged as a favorite in several Melbourne Cup markets. This is after Spanish Mission, trained by Andrew Balding, showed great ability in the Lonsdale Cup, giving European Champion Stradivarius a serious fight.
Tregea was asked whether Incentivise had what it takes to compete with the big guns and his honest opinion was that he didn’t know! He also stated that Incentivise still had a lot of work to do to measure up in Melbourne.
However, the galloper had surprised Tregea with his win in the Group Three Tatts Cup in Queensland. Tregea also revealed that he had given Peter Moody all the tips on how he used to train Incentivise, including what he likes and his weaknesses.