Incentivise’s Qld travel intervention
INCENTIVISE is back “home” in Queensland but not before police intervened in a sequence of events which left Air Horse Transport boss Chris Calthorpe scratching his head and pleading for common sense to prevail.
The Peter Moody-trained Caulfield Cup champion and three-time Group 1 winner arrived back in Toowoomba on Tuesday night after the flight from Victoria was already delayed a week due to red tape.
The good news is Incentivise is safely back in the care of his original trainer and managing owner Steve Tregea, who had been anxiously awaiting his arrival for a summer spell before potentially targeting next year’s Queensland winter carnival.
The bad news is the travel logistics and mixed messaging from Queensland Health and Queensland Police became a nightmare.
It would be hoped a more common sense and straightforward approach could be taken to future horse flights to Queensland. Victorian horses intend to fly north in the coming month to target the rich Gold Coast Magic Millions carnival.
Calthorpe, a Group 1winning trainer in his own right, explained how Incentivise was ticked off to travel with a groom on the flight before there was last-minute confusion when Queensland Police became involved.
“This was a lot harder trying to get a horse up there to Queensland than it was in May when Covid was more rife,” Calthorpe said.
“We went through the Health Department, we did everything right, but then the coppers got involved.
“When we asked for an exemption from Queensland Health, we asked for an exemption under airfreight crew, and the groom who travelled with Incentivise was booked into a quarantine hotel for crew.
“I initially told Toowoomba police that we had been approved by the Health Department and they were happy, but then I got a call from Brisbane Police and they said they were running the show. Brisbane police said the groom was staying at the wrong joint (quarantine hotel). They said he was not considered crew and they didn’t want him at that particular hotel. We had to change hotels three times.”
The Queensland border is opening up more broadly over the next month and Calthorpe is hoping common sense will prevail for future flights. Star Victorian horses are eyeing off January’s rich Gold Coast Magic Millions carnival.
Calthorpe said everyone he dealt with in Queensland tried to be helpful but the situation was extremely confusing and it became a logistic nightmare.
“What I have gone through in the last 24 hours is amazing,” Calthorpe said. “I know they are only doing their job but surely the Health Department and the police have to work together.
“In Victoria, the whole racing industry has to be doublevaxxed, so anyone in racing who flies up to Queensland with a horse will be doublevaxxed and they can produce a negative Covid test.
“There is going to be a lot of interest in horses flying up there for the Queensland carnival, so hopefully the situation with travelling horses becomes more straightforward. Now people know that Incentivise has got up, trainers are ringing me and asking if I can take their horses up to Queensland.”