It’s uman nature to back magnetic Strip

The Everest. The Caulfield Cup. The W.S. Cox Plate. The Melbourne Cup. Peak racing season has arrived.

Nature Strip with jockey James McDonald on board ahead of The Everest

The Everest. The Caulfield Cup. The W.S. Cox Plate. The Melbourne Cup. Peak racing season has arrived. Four hugely prestigious track meets in the next three weeks. From Nature Strip to Incentivise, there’s only one sure thing. There’s no sure things between now and the most glorious Tuesday in November.

Spring has sprung. The Everest is first from the blocks. Someone has christened it “The Race That Stops Hibernation”. Give the author a ribbon. Here’s Nature Strip in preparation now, zooming around Rosehill Gardens. He’s to The Everest what Greg Norman was to the US Masters. Usually, a license to burn your money.

He always looks so damn good in the lead-up. Gets your hard-earned. Starts favourite. Bombs out. He led in 2019 but finished 1.3 lengths behind Nick Faldo — sorry, Yes Yes Yes. He fell away last year after the chip-in from Larry Mize – sorry, Classique Legend. Norman once said he loved the Masters but the Masters didn’t love him. If the horse could talk …

Nature Strip had a sprightly and rather jolly run around Rosehill on Monday morning – freedom day – before trainer Chris Waller gave him the same old appraisal. The thumbs up. “He’s a little bit more tractable than he was last year,” Waller said. “I think this will be important. It will be a tough race.”

Hope’s eternal at this time of year, of course, and Nature Strip’s two spring outings have been respectable. He was an all-the-way winner of the Group 3 Concorde Stakes in early September and then runner-up to Eduardo in the Group 2 Shorts. “Nature Strip hasn’t put a foot wrong since his last-start run,” Waller said. “He’s fitter. Third up, he normally peaks, which is what we expect on Saturday. There’s a prospect for a bit of rain. That won’t dishearten Nature Strip.”

The Everest. The Caulfield Cup. The Cox Plate. The Melbourne Cup. What a field. All four races could stop the nation before the race that stops the nation. If everyone got a haircut on Monday – 12 of us were lined up at my local barber in various states of dishevelment — more snips are on the way when we all blow our dough on the punt in these next three weeks.

Sure things make us poor things. There will be ample opportunities for the time-honoured ritual of going to a track, picking a horse or two at a course or two, investing a few bob, watching him not win, ripping up the ticket, vowing to never bet again, putting a couple more bob on the next race, losing again, admonishing oneself for the foolishness of gambling in the first place. I have missed watching my hard-earned go up in smoke.

Never again was I going to back Nature Strip. This year’s tip? Nature Strip.

The Everest and Caulfield Cups are on Saturday. The Cox Plate is the following Saturday. The Melbourne Cup brings it home on the first and and most wonderful Tuesday in November.

It’s still the great race. The romantic race. The Everest is good for a quick fling but the Cup has something more deep and meaningful. It has history.

This year’s edition will be the softest in years, notwithstanding the return of last year’s Irish winner, the Lloyd Williams-owned Twilight Payment. It won’t be locals only, but it’ll be close. Only six foreign raiders are expected to start.

Australian stayers will have their best chance in years to duke it out among themselves, more or less, because quarantine and strict veterinary requirements have kept so many quality internationals away. Apart from Twilight Payment, his stablemate Master of Reality and a few others, no self-respecting northern-hemisphere thoroughbred wants two weeks in isolation.

Remember this name. Incentivise. The big lump has stumbled out of the Queensland bush to win a couple of Group 1s in Melbourne and put himself in the hunt for the grand slam of the Melbourne spring. The prestigious treble of Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup. It’s only been done once before, by Rising Fast in 1954. You’ve probably never heard of Incentivise but come November 2, he may be a household name.

Racing needs him to fire up. The sport needs another champion. The game’s at its best when a wonder horse is running hot, stirring the soul, capturing the imagination.

Lately we’ve been spoiled. Black Caviar went 25-0 from 2009 to 2013 in what was thought to be a once-in-a-generation streak. When she went off to enjoy retirement and have babies, Winx skipped in and won 33 on the trot. She gave Hugh Bowman a headbutt when he wanted a farewell kiss, said goodbye and left a void yet to be filled.

If Incentivise wins the Caulfield Cup, and then the Cox Plate, the hype around him will be immense ahead of the Melbourne Cup. There’s no bandwagon bigger than an all-conquering racehorse’s bandwagon, and we’re crying out for another history-making one to jump on.

First things first, though. The Everest. Starting at 3pm Saturday before Incentivise lines up at Caulfield at 5.15pm. Classique Legend is the $4 favourite in Sydney despite competing less than Nick Kyrgios this year. He hasn’t raced for 10 months but the defending champ has attracted most of the fools’ early money. At $5 is Nature Strip, who may yet again prove to be the cheapest haircut in town.