NZ stayer Megablast on seven-day back-up
New Zealand trainer Nigel Tiley will back Megablast up at Flemington seven days after his close second at Moonee Valley.
The five-year-old was beaten a short head by Black Tomahawk over 2040m on Saturday and Tiley is keen to run him over 2500m before taking him back to New Zealand with a spring campaign in Australia in mind.
“We’ve come here because we’re seriously considering bringing him back in the spring and we just wanted to bring him over and see where he sat class-wise and see how he handles the different tracks,” Tiley told NZ Racing Desk.
“He handled Moonee Valley very well, so Flemington will be right up his alley I think.
“He’s come through Saturday’s race very well. He has eaten everything we have put in front of him since.
“He’s going to back up at Flemington over 2500 metres and hopefully we’ll get a bit of rain on the day to just take a bit of the fire out of the track for him.
“The track (Moonee Valley) was just a bit too firm for him. He doesn’t have that explosive turn of foot when the track is a bit better.”
Megablast ran second in the Group Two Avondale Cup (2400m) on a slow track and fourth in the Group One Auckland Cup (3200m) on dead ground.
Ben Melham rode him on Saturday but will be on holiday this week with Beau Mertens to ride.
“He’s having a battle with Craig Williams at the moment for the premiership, so if we were able to give him a winner that would help him that would be nice,” Tiley said.
Tiley said he was enjoying having a quality horse in his stable good enough to campaign in Australia.
“Normally I get a good horse and it gets sold, so I don’t have too many opportunities to bring a horse like Megablast over,” he said.
“I haven’t travelled horses for a while, so it’s good for me to get my eye back in.”