It is not often that a horse rising five years of age and having only his first run will attract as much attention as Argyle Lane did at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.
But then again, not every horse is a half-brother to Incentivise, trainer Steve Tregea’s former star performer, who Tregea turned around after a slow start to his career to reach epic heights, famously reeling in six successive victories for Tregea as the owner/trainer/breeder (by a combined winning margin of an incredible 41.90 lengths) … before adding another three successes to that winning sequence after a fifty percent interest in the horse was sold and Incentivise moved to the Peter Moody stable.
The fact that those last three wins in the nine-race winning sequence were all Group 1 victories (in the Makybe Diva over 1600, in the Turnbull over 2000m and in the Caulfield Cup over 2400m) made Incentivise’s run of results as significant as they could possibly be, particularly given how improbable that outcome would have seemed after Incentivise had finished unplaced … and soundly beaten … in his first three career starts.
The ultimate triumph, one which would have been the jewel in Incentivise’s crown, proved to be just out of reach though, but incentivise’s runner-up finish in the Melbourne Cup (behind Verry Elleegant) could never be classed as a failure … it was another magnificent effort, particularly when it was discovered after the fact that he had picked up an injury in the race.
Incentivise has not raced since the 2021 Melbourne Cup.
Incentivise is by Shamus Award out of Miss Argyle. The year younger Argyle Lane is by Golden Archer out of Miss Argyle.
Miss Argyle, who had nine foals passed away last year meaning that Argyle Lane was her last foal, so you can see why there would be obvious interest whenever Argyle Lane took on his first race assignment … and he is now likely to attract even more attention after coming home a winner on debut as a late four-year-old.
“He’s had a lot of problems,” said Tregea, explaining why it took Argyle Lane so long to face the starter.
“He had a condition in his back leg called cellulitis,” continued Tregea. “It is basically an infection of the muscle tissues … under the skin, but not in the joint … and it just comes back on horses.
“I’ve never had one before … ever … but his back leg swelled up to three or four times the size it should have been, so he has been in and out of the University Hospital. He has had a lot of treatment, a lot of antibiotics, a lot of time to get over it … and then he went and hurt it again and it flared up.
“You can say we’ve been very patient with him, but what that actually means is that we had no choice but to be patient.
“We always though he had some ability, but you never know until they do it in a race. He is a big raw bugger.
“Josh, the foreman, said he would win, but I just wanted to see it happen,” concluded Tregea.
The win when it came was full of merit, with Argyle Lane ($8) doing virtually everything right, in spite of his lack of experience, with Micheal Murphy guiding him to a finely measured win after taking most of the straight to run down the $1.40 favourite Win Burn.
Incentivise had taken four races to land his first win. Argyle Lane is a winner on debut.
There are difficult shoes to fill, but, with the ‘Tregea Touch’ and Argyle Lane’s obvious scope for improvement, who knows what might happen next.
What the record books already can detail for certain is that Argyle Lane has made the best possible start to his career!
