Tregea’s Windermere operation has the incentive to aim high

Tregea is an avid breeder and owner under his Windermere Stud banner and trains the fruits of his labour at Clifford Park at Toowoomba. He has enjoyed stakes success in his three roles, but that may all be trumped by Incentivise.

However, it will only be as a breeder and owner as Tregea recently sold a 50 per cent interest in the rising staying star to high-profile owners Ozzie Kheir and Brae Sokolski.

Incentivise will be transferred to Peter Moody’s Victorian stable for a spring campaign with the 4-year-old’s 9.5l last-start victory romp at Ipswich cutting his odds for the G1 Caulfield Cup to 26-1 and halved to 51-1 for the G1 Melbourne Cup.

That Incentivise is a Windermere Stud product is a source of great satisfaction to Tregea, who changed tack a few years ago and now retains all the progeny produced by his small broodmare band.

“We used to sell yearlings, but I thought that was a pretty tough game. I decided to train the ones I breed myself, with some success and a few failures,” he said.

“We usually mate 10 mares a year and this year we’ve only got five mares to foal for one reason or another. I basically decide on the mating myself, sometimes I get it right and sometimes not.”

One of his top performers to date is the homebred Niccanova (Nicconi), a third generation Windermere product who has won 10 races including the G2 Victory S. and the G3 Fred Best Classic.

He also went close to elevating Tregea into the select club of breeding, owning and training a Group 1 winner when he rattled home to finish third in last year’s G1 Stradbroke H.

Patience

Incentivise looks to have the potential of holding his own in top company and the gelding has profited by Tregea’s patience, an approach afforded to him by not having to answer to anyone but himself.

“He’s getting better and better. He’s been a very late-maturing horse and I didn’t worry about him because I thought he might make a nice staying horse,” he said.

“Well, I hoped he would make a stayer and that seems to be the way it’s turned out. For once I was right.

“I’ve nominated him for the Tatt’s Cup on Saturday and the Caloundra Cup, he won’t go to both although I’ve done sillier things. He hasn’t met the good horses yet, so his next run will be interesting.

“He’s in the paddock now eating a bit of grass with a mate, just like the Kiwis do and it certainly works.”

Incentivise is a son of Miss Argyle (Iglesia), who took Tregea’s eye and he had several looks at her at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, but interest from the Gai Waterhouse camp was too strong and she was sold to Tulloch Lodge for $270,000.

Miss Argyle placed in a brief career in the Listed Gimcrack S. before she was offered at a Magic Millions Gold Coast August Sale in 2008 and Tregea secured her for an identical price.

Back in those days he was still selling yearlings and her first foal Cheyenne Warrior (Not A Single Doubt) made $80,000 through the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale ring and subsequently won four races, including the Listed Gold Sovereign S.

Stallion prospect

Another notable sale was Ardrossan, a son of Redoute’s Choice who made $150,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and won the G3 Concorde H. He also placed in the G1 Waikato Sprint before taking his place on Waikato Stud’s stallion roster, with his oldest crop rising yearlings.

Miss Argyle met an untimely end, but Tregea is still breeding from the family.

“She died last year after hitting her head on a rock in the paddock. We just found her one morning with neurological problems and she was barely able to stand up,” he said. “She lasted a few days and we tried to save the Pride Of Dubai foal, but that was a lost cause.”

Miss Argyle’s daughter Flaunt (Drumbeats) won two races before she took her place in the Windermere broodmare band and is in foal to Spirit Of Boom.

Flaunt is a sister to Bergerac, who won 10 races for Tregea including the Listed Ipswich Cup and the Listed Bernborough H.