John Tapp Racing

We caught Anthony at the end of a good week. He’d ridden a double on the Gold Coast the day before, and a winner at Eagle Farm the previous Wednesday. As Incentivise’s original rider he was a keen observer when the rising star won Saturday’s Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington. He watched on a TV monitor in the mounting yard at Aquis Park. Anthony gives his impressions of the Makybe Diva win and then takes us through Incentivise’s rise through the grades in Queensland. We chat about Anthony’s early years in Maitland and the shock discovery of his hearing impairment. He’s been wearing hearing aids from age eight. The jockey talks of his fascination with the game of Rugby League and his lifelong fascination with the Newcastle Knights. He talks of the only racing link in his family background- the grandfather who wanted to be a jockey but wasn’t allowed to pursue his dream. Anthony talks of two apprenticeships in Grafton and his move to a Brisbane stable. He remembers his first ride which turned out to be a