No Way Out for Incentivise

In the age of COVID-19, horseracing is not immune to the expression, ‘The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…’ After winning his past four starts by a jaw-dropping total of close to 40-lengths, recently promoted Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup favourite Incentivise (Shamus Award) is unable to head south to Victoria to join trainer Peter Moody. According to racenet.com.au, the out-of-left-field potential staying star will instead have to remain in training for now with part-owner and original trainer Steve Tregea in Toowoomba. That’s hardly a train smash, given the tyranny he’s unleashed from the Darling Downs capital. With Victoria in lockdown, Air Horse Transport’s Victorian-based Chris Calthorpe, himself a Group 1-winning trainer, explained, “We are lockdown in Victoria so Brisbane won’t let us in, “Until something happens there, there isn’t much we can do… While the border is shut, it is hard.” Moody appears unruffled by events surrounding Incentivise, saying, “He was coming this week but the way it has worked out he’ll stay up there. It’s not the end of the world, it’s no dramas and there’s no rush.”