INCENTIVISE A HIT FOR MOODY

CHAMPION trainer Peter Moody finally claimed one of Australian racing’s “big four” majors when his freakish talent Incentivise demolished the best stayers in the country in taking out the $5 million Caulfield Cup on Saturday.

In an emotional win for Moody, and for jockey Brett Prebble who has enjoyed a riding renaissance this spring, the five-year-old gelding, who was a maiden from only one race start this time last year, took his extraordinary streak of victories to nine in a row.

Incentivise tightened his already firm grip on Melbourne Cup favouritism by overcoming the widest draw to effortlessly race away to a three and a half length victory over Nonconformist with Persan in third place in a crowdless Caulfield racetrack.

Prebble had a message for those who wondered if the one-time star from Toowoomba could back it up in the race that stops a nation next month.

“All that is telling me is ‘Look out Melbourne Cup … he is going to eat the 32(00 metres),” Prebble said shortly after hugging Moody following the race.

“He is probably one of the most exciting horses I have ever ridden.”

Incentivise’s victory in the Caulfield Cup provided a comeback story that will go down in the annals of racing.

The horse has now firmed into $2.80 to complete the Cups’ double, while the TAB has installed him at $6 for the Cox Plate if Moody chooses to back him up in next Saturday’s Cox Plate.

Moody (pictured) was every bit as emotional in tasting the biggest success of his training career in the signature race on the track where he based himself in the first successful phase of his Victorian training career.

“It’s unbelievable … Caulfield was my home for 16 or 17 years and I trained a couple of thousand winners here, but had never won this one (the Caulfield Cup),” Moody said.

“I’m very grateful to Brae Sokolski and Ozzie Kheir for sending the horse to me and a special thanks to (the horse’s original trainer) Steve Tregea.

“A big shoutout to everyone up at Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, this one’s for you.”

Having trained the almost peerless sprinting sensation Black Caviar and dominated Australian racing in the first, rich chapter of his training career, it seemed fitting an ex-Queensland galloper has spearheaded Moody’s second coming as a trainer. The one-time kid from the Queensland outback who learnt to ride not long after he learnt to walk, quit training five years ago after an 18

month battle with racing stewards, including a six-month ban after he was found to have unintentionally presented a horse with an illegal level of cobalt in its system.

Moody always denied any wrongdoing and at the time he vowed he would never return to a sport that he felt had turned against him.

Thankfully, he changed his mind and his return to racing as a trainer based out of Pakenham has been a spectacular success, even more so since being entrusted with the care of Incentivise following the horse’s Queensland winter carnival romp.

The $3m first prize purse has taken the horse’s overall tally to $4.5m.

It was a bittersweet day for prominent owners Sokolski and Kheir, who tasted Caulfield Cup success just hours after their Cox Plate-winning horse Sir Dragonet had to be euthanized after breaking down in a track gallop at Moonee Valley.

Prebble’s remarkable spring continued as he took out the Caulfield Cup with a near flawless ride on Incentivise and can now look to chase a second Melbourne Cup, having won the race that stops a nation on Green Moon in 2012.