Brett Prebble has been a quiet achiever in the early part of the 2021-22 season and is hoping to cement his position as one of Victoria’s premier jockeys at Flemington on Saturday.
After finding the going tough when he initially returned from Hong Kong, Prebble has put in the hard work which is starting to pay off.
He went to tracks that he had not ridden on since his apprenticeship days but doing those hard yards has seen him pick up rides for some of the leading stables.
Prebble sits third on the Melbourne Jockeys’ Premiership and while the season is still young it is a far cry from where he was last season.
He was victorious in the opening two Group 1 races of the season in Melbourne and hopes Incentivise, one of those Group 1 winners, can give him his third in just over a month in Saturday’s Turnbull Stakes at Flemington.
Incentivise scored in the Group 1 Makybe Diva Stakes (1600m) at Flemington on September 11 which formed part of a two-leg stakes double for Prebble that day.
Prebble was also victorious on Ranch Hand in the Listed Poiseidon Stakes (1100m) and the Chris Waller-trained three-year-old lines up again on Saturday in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1100m).
The determination to work hard paved the way for Prebble landing the ride on Ranch Hand after he decided to head to Flemington and ride work for the Waller yard.
And Prebble has a high opinion of the Fastnet Rock colt, believing the three-year-old could develop into a Group 1 winner later in the Spring Carnival.
“I think this horse is really going to put his hand up and be a big player in the three-year-old sprint races,” Prebble said.
“He’s a horse going places. He’s got a very good pedigree and he’s owned by the big boys, Coolmore, and they want him winning the big races, as do I.”
The Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on October 30 and Waller knows what it takes to win the stallion making race having won with Zoustar (2013), Brazen Beau (2014), Japonisme (2015) and September Run last year.