Prominent owner Brae Sokolski is confident that his talented stayer Incentivise will be back at the races in the spring.
The former Queensland galloper was one of the stars of racing in 2021, winning nine consecutive races including three group ones, before running second to champion mare Verry Elleegant in the Melbourne Cup.
Incentivise emerged from the great race with tears to his suspensory ligament and damage to his cannon bones and tendons, but Sokolski said that the horse was recovering well.
“He’s doing great,” Sokolski said.
“He’s still in recuperation mode but they couldn’t be happier with his progress and as I’ve always said, I maintain the confidence that he’s going to be back bigger and better than ever in the spring.
“The horse is a phenomenal athlete and he’s doing everything that the vets had hoped for in terms of his recovery and we’ll be seeing him in the spring.”
In a season where Sokolski has enjoyed top level success with horses like Incentivise, Verry Elleegant, Sierra Sue and Hinged, he admitted that the upcoming carnivals in Adelaide and Brisbane could be a quieter time from his point of view.
One horse that he does hope can step up in Queensland is Brookspire, who’s been placed at group level in the past and was back at the barrier trials last week.
“If she comes back the way we anticipate, she could be on a Tatt’s Tiara path,” Sokolski said.
“She’s set to resume in the next couple of weeks. We’ve always hoped that she could be competitive at the highest level, especially against her own sex and that’s a logical race for her to progress to, but she does have to step up and prove that she’s up to that grade.”
– racing.com
