It’s the remarkable tale of the last horse to beat the Cup
RACECALLER Anthony Collins put it best in his call when he said “favourite punters are reaching for rosary beads”, after little-known galloper Incentivise was flogged by 16 lengths in a Toowoomba maiden in March.
As Incentivise, the wellbacked $2 favourite that night, dropped back through the field after being hampered by fading runners, Collins also made a prophetic prediction as the horses crossed the line in the modest 1850m event.
“Forget it (Incentivise) ever, ever went around, it will win a race soon,” Collins said.
Few racing pundits probably took heed of those words. They should have.
Incentivise hasn’t lost since. And his nine-race giantkilling winning streak has included three Group 1 wins and seen the Queensland homebred installed as the raging Melbourne Cup favourite.
But back to that race in March, won by Golden Goal for Toowoomba trainer Tom Dougall.
While Incentivise’s star has soared, Golden Goal hasn’t won since. In his past three runs, the gelding finished last at Toowoomba, failed to finish at the same track, and was almost six lengths off the winner at country Nanango.
Dougall said he went to the track confident that Golden Goal (the $4.20 second favourite) could beat Incentivise.
He said his 10-year-old daughter Libby shared the same confidence.
“My youngest daughter loves watching races and I told
her that I had $10 on Golden Goal for her,” Dougall said.
“We were out the front watching it on the big screen, and I said to her at the 800m that the favourite (Incentivise) was in trouble.
“I said, ‘We will get the cash here’, when Incentivise got stuck behind some slow horses.
“We only just fell over the line to win in a race where (jockey) Nozi Tomizawa gave us an absolute gun run and everything panned out perfectly for us. My horse had been racing well before that in weak company, and things didn’t go right for Incentivise on that particular night.”
Dougall, who is mates with Incentivise’s breeder, original trainer and managing owner Steve Tregea, has been cheering on Incentivise’s remarkable run to Cup favouritism.
“We knew Steve had a big opinion of him right from the start,” Dougall said.
“We had our money on him when he had his very first start at Ipswich (Incentivise was backed from $7 into $4.80 on debut and finished ninth in August 2020).”
Dougall said there was no secret to knocking off Incentivise that night – he was yet to really learn his trade and develop into a rampaging force.
Dougall said the runner-up, mare Blue Corner, was yet to win a race in 20 starts.
“It was a pretty weak race, and for Incentivise to go on and do what he has done is quite incredible,” Dougall said.
“I’m very happy for Steve because he works hard and puts a lot into what he does.
“He deserves a good horse like this.”