Incentivise has had his first public outing since coming down from Queensland with a gallop between races at Pakenham.
The Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup favourite is being trained for the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival by Peter Moody having won six of his nine start for Steve Tregea in Queensland.
Incentivise leapt to the top of betting for both Cups after scoring a 12-length victory in the Group 3 Tatt’s Cup (2400m) at Eagle Farm, his first outing in stakes grade, on June 26.
Due to COVID restrictions Incentivise was forced to travel by road from Queensland to Moody’s Pakenham stable, arriving late last month.
Moody said Incentivise was a bit above himself ahead of Monday’s course-proper workout with stablemate Shepard.
“It’s the first time we’ve had him out publicly and he was a little bit above himself, having a little bit of a jig-jog,” Moody told racing.com.
“But the whole idea of it was to give him a nice spin round and get a bit of practice into him getting onto his Melbourne leg.
“Brian Higgins said he chopped and changed a little bit and wasn’t totally balanced all the way, but we’ve got a few more weeks and a couple of more gallops to work on that.
“He had a sharp blow, but I reckon he’ll recover pretty quick and we’ll step his work up again.”
Moody said the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on September 11 would be the Melbourne debut for Incentivise.
“He’ll start there on Saturday fortnight, so I’ve got the option of taking him down to Traralgon for a trial next week if I so choose, or just look to give him a couple of more gallops on the course-proper here,” Moody said.
“I’ll just weigh that up in the next week.”
Article from JustHorseRacing.com.au