Darling Downs booming on the back of Incentivise's winning run

By Jordan Gerrans

Anthony Collins reckons he cannot move far these days on the Darling Downs without people declaring to him – “how good is Incentivise!”

The voice of racing at Clifford Park is seeing first hand just how captivated those around Toowoomba – and across Australia more broadly – are by the fairy-tale story of the Windemere Stud-bred stayer into the 2021 Melbourne Cup.

Collins was behind the microphone in two of Incentivise’s more significant races across his journey: his last defeat at Clifford Park in late March as well as his slashing seven-length victory at the same track in the middle of May.

In that triumph – the third in a row for Incentivise – Collins declared the five-year-old gelding was one to watch, believing he would go on to reach great heights.

On reflection, the respected caller thought Incentivise might be able to win a Toowoomba Cup in September of this year, or maybe a Listed Queensland Cup at Eagle Farm, not be a red-hot favourite for the race that stops the nation.

The buzz and excitement around Incentivise was at its highest following the dominant Caulfield Cup win, Collins says.

“It is as easy as walking around Clifford Park and everyone wants to talk about one word – Incentivise,” Collins said.

“The most common saying is 'how good is Incentivise' – that is what they say to me, everywhere I go.

“It is a very surreal feeling and it probably still hasn’t registered to the owners that they have such a good horse on their hands.

“To everyone here in Toowoomba, it is still surreal.”

Incentivise is as Toowoomba as it gets - bred at Steve Tregea’s Windermere Stud operation, stabled at Clifford Park for all of his early career before relocating to Victoria, as well as recording his third victory on the bounce at his home track in the middle of May.

Nine victories in a line and with the 2021 Melbourne Cup to come, Incentivise is being compared to another champion race horse from the Darling Downs.

Kevin Kemp has seen thousands of gallopers go around Clifford Park over the years and thinks the Tregea gelding is on the way to being spoken about in the same breathe as the great Bernborough.

Bernborough was foaled near Oakey on the Darling Downs – just a short drive from Clifford Park – with a statue in the town to this day recognising his outstanding career in the 1940s.

“I was not around when Bernborough was racing, but I can imagine what it was like then when he went to Sydney and won all those races like he did,” veteran trainer Kemp said.

“Since Bernborough, there would not have been a horse like Incentivise on the Downs.”