Trainer Steve Tregea has been approached to sell a horse to Hong Kong before and it would seem certain that Incentivise’s recent eye-catching efforts (the four-year-old has now won his last two starts by a combined total of 16.30 lengths) would have caught the attention of those active in the Hong Kong market.
It seems a happy windfall for any owner selling a horse to Hong Kong when it happens … and, in raw terms, that certainly almost always turns out to be the case, but it is not always simply ‘show me the money’ call … as Steve Tregea explains.
Just last Sunday, a horse formerly owned and trained by Tregea won on debut in Hong Kong.
The horse who raced as Command ‘n’ Conquer in Australia won five of his seven starts locally before being sold and finding a new home with trainer David Hayes in Hong Kong where he now races under the name Naboo Attack.
“The problem, if you can call it that, is that there is just so much money to get horses over there and, effectively, what happens is, you are offered double the price … or more … then you would get in Australia.
“That leads to a huge dilemma.
“Every time you get a horse that those buyers like … they want to buy it, which leads to the situation where you know you probably can’t win that much in prize-money in Australia … even though the prize-money is great here.
“So, you have then got to decide how much the money means to you … and that is not just about weighing up keeping a particular horse or taking the money.
“I can only speak for myself, but when you are in the business of the breeding and racing game as we are … that becomes a much wider question.
“Effectively, you are in the game not to lose too much money …and I can tell you, it is easy to lose a lot of money.
“Money obviously is necessary to help fund the business, so you have got to be sensible about the impact a large offer for a horse can do for you.
“Sometimes you have got to pull yourself up … as much as you love the horse … a horse you have bred and been with all of the way and you don’t really like to see them go over there … and you basically have to do it if the sale is going to help secure the future of your business moving forward.
“Bear in mind also though, that it is very difficult to get a sale to Hong Kong to go through.
“When you accept an offer, the sale is always subject to compliance with the Hong Kong terms … which are very strict. So, there is no guarantee it is going to happen just because you take the money.
“We have done it before … where you go through all of that and then you are still left with the horse when it fails a test.
“That particular process, from working out whether you were going to sell, then taking the money and accepting that the horse was going to leave you, to having the horse fail to be pass the strict entry tests, to getting the horse back …it is all very emotional and draining.
“If a sale of ours does go through … like Command ‘N’ Conquer (now Naboo Attack) … for sure, we follow their progress.
“We don’t sell too many there, but we pay a lot of attention to what they are doing there.
