Verry Elleegant v Incentivise: the 2022 match up racing needs
In two races run one month apart, a rivalry between Verry Elleegant and emerging star Incentivise flickered to life.
Incentivise won the first battle over 2000 metres on October 2 in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington. Verry Elleegant won the war when she prevailed in the rematch on Melbourne Cup day, November 2, over two miles.
That winning feeling: James McDonald aboard Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant.Credit:Getty Images
The question is whether it flares into the two-horse war Australian racing needs in 2022.
If it does, the code will have a contest capable of capturing the imagination of sports lovers comparable to the one super sprinters Hay List and Black Caviar waged in 2011 and 2012 when Hay List finished second to Black Caviar four times.
Those with longer memories will recall battles between Sir Dapper and Emancipation, Northerly and Sunline or even the greatest one race battle of them all when Bonecrusher beat Our Waverley Star in the 1986 Cox Plate.
Anthony Mithen, the boss of Rosemont Stud, the home of Incentivise’s brilliant sire Shamus Award, describes the thought of what potentially lies ahead as “tantalising”.
“To have the King of the track (Incentivise) come out of a big, high-profile Melbourne yard like [Peter] Moody’s and take on the Queen of the track (Verry Elleegant) out of a high-profile Sydney stable like [Chris] Waller’s almost typifies what racing is about at the moment: NSW versus Victoria and the Queen versus the King,” Mithen said. “It will be fantastic.”
Caulfield Cup winner Incentivise.Credit:Getty
Having almost snared the Cup double in a remarkable campaign there is no chance Incentivise will get any favours from the handicapper again as he heads off for a well-earned break after pulling up a little sore from the Melbourne Cup.
Verry Elleegant will return in the Autumn after a rest too having franked her horse of the year honour with a memorable Cup run.
Although no decisions have been made a weight-for-age program seems most likely for both horses in 2022 with the Autumn prospects of an Australian Cup in Victoria or the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in NSW set to be high on the pair’s agenda. They are likely to have Zaaki for company despite a disappointing spring, with three-year-old Anamoe, who ran second in the Cox Plate, also a chance to compete in open age.
Verry Elleegant finished second to Addeybb in the WFA Queen Elizabeth run over 2000 metres at Randwick in April in the past two years with Waller keen to add the race that Winx won three times to her quality list of achievements that has seen her win 10 different group 1 races.
Such a race would hold no fears for Incentivise with Mithen reserving high praise for the next star of the turf.
“[Incentivise] constantly reminds me of Might and Power who was just a freak and ran a horse into the ground and demoralised them by doing it at both ends of a race,” Mithen said.
“He seems to have that ability to just keep on going. [Verry Elleegant] had that turn of foot late in the Cup. Maybe [Incentivise] needed to roll to the front and keep on rolling and take the sting out of her tail late in the race.
“These are the great things we can discuss building up into the Autumn.”
As we will because the truth is that while dominant champions are great for racing, there is nothing better than title fights between two-star horses with Verry Elleegant and Incentivise shaping as that pair early in 2022.
That thought might give high-energy horse fanatic Brae Sokolski, who part owns both horses, a headache, but it’s the sort of pain anyone could handle as racing looks forward to the year ahead.
Most Viewed in Sport
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article