By Jack McInerney –
Remember the Steve Tregea trained horse BERGERAC? He was a tough gelding by bread & butter stallion Drumbeats, he even won a Saturday Sydney Metro race (Paying $14), in saying that the class of the race was evident by the battler ISLAND MISSILE jumping the $3.20fav. Another interesting piece of racing history from that meeting was in race 3 where the Brent Stanley trained RED ALTO ($10) beat 8 other horses all hailing from the C.Waller stable, some feat!
Now thats enough about BERGERAC, lets talk about what everyone in racing is talking about, his little half brother whose dad was a Stallion who won a Cox Plate as a maiden (Shamus Award), the horse of the moment, INCENTIVISE.
When you have won your last 4 starts by a combined margin of just shy of 40 Lengths its self evident as to why the hype continues to grow by the day surrounding this horse and its future plans of lining up in both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
He has been installed as $9 Favourite for the Caulfield Cup and $13 Favourite for the Melbourne Cup with NSW TAB which some are calling an act of lunacy taking into account the quality of the opposition at his past 4 starts.
His 12 Length demolition of his opposition last start in the G3 Tattersals Cup was nothing short of spectacular with the Group1 Winner MIRAGE DANCER coming a distant second. Steve Tregea who owned the horse outright two runs back sold a 50% share in him for an undisclosed amount to the 2 current doyen owners in Australian Racing, Mr Brae Sokolski and Mr Ozzie Kheir who as a result would be transferred to Peter Moody to be trained for the Melbourne Spring Carnival. And also as a result of the sale the horse went from racing in Tregea’s distinct Red & White silks to Brae Sokolski’s Green and Black tartan style silks. A sight which lights up the eyes of any true racing fan invoking memories of the dynamic YES YES YES and his emphatic Everest Win when ridden by Group One Glen Boss!
Tregea has been quoted as saying: “For a horse that you wouldn’t give two bob for twelve months ago … I just don’t know what to say. He just keeps on improving and improving,”
What a dream scenario for Tregea really, a horse he didn’t rate at all turns out to show borderline prodigious talent to the eye and on paper (if you listen to the ratings men and women) and he sells 50% of it for mega money and just gets to sit back and see how it unfolds, after all he does own half of the Caulfield Cup AND Melbourne Cup Favourite. To say it is a big go would be a grave understatement.
Another interesting thing to note is Tregea sold INCENTIVISES’ full sister RA RA EPIC at last years Magic Millions Broodmare Sale, in foal to boom sire DEEP FIELD for $80,000. Imagine what he could get for her now! But its safe to say Tregea is sitting pretty and sometimes Racing is all about patience. To finish and emphasise the importance of patience in racing I will leave a quote by the Late, Great Bart Cummings:
“Patience is the cheapest thing in racing, and the least used”
Yeah The Punt 