It's been a while for the owners of Megablast to wait for his career maximum form. The grey has always shown flashes of real form, but Tiley believes now as a 7-year-old, Megablast is ready to really show owners Diane and Dr John Bowbyes what he is really worth.
"He's just so much stronger this campaign - remarkably so," he says.
That showed on Saturday in testing conditions. His winning margin over stablemate Brighton was threequarters of a length, but if Megablast hadn't been squeezed up between two horses and spat out the back of the gap Michael Coleman was attempting on the home bend, you could have added at least two lengths to that margin. The net result of the check was Coleman having to aim Megablast down towards the inside running rail, where the footing was probably a little tougher.
Megablast doesn't zip sprint in a short space, but builds into a sustained forward momentum and when the footing is rain-affected the opposition needs to be powerful to hold him out. Up Pukekohe's long home straight they were never going to repel him this time, although his stablemate Brighton momentarily looked like being a genuine threat.
At distances 2000m to 2200m, Megablast is going to take plenty of beating in Queensland, particularly if the sunshine state gets its regular carnival rain. Redwood was a creditable third and as distances increase he will come right into his own. Queensland could also be an option for him. No surprise the Baker/Forsman stable has at least a couple of late season developers, so the Rubira and Ole Ole quinella did not shock anyone, despite Andrew Forsman's nervousness that the track downgrade just before Race 1 from a 9 to a heavy 10 could bring the pair undone.
Rubira put the flashing light between her ears in making up a huge amount of ground to finish just behind the placegetters on debut at Avondale. She raced a touch one paced when fourth at New Plymouth then relished the stretch out to 1600m on Saturday. "She'll spell now, I can see her as a classy staying 3-year-old filly next season," said Forsman who races the filly in a syndicate that includes Lindsay De Sousa, Willie Leung and Michael Guerin.
Forsman was equally thrilled with Ole Ole. "He'd had only one start to the filly's two and he did a wonderful job to lead them up over 1600m. He could have another one and will improve with racing."
Plenty lined up to congratulate Allan Morley after Blue Breeze left them behind in Saturday's opener. The gelding had a rating of only 69 and did a huge job stepping up to open company, winning as he liked in the heavy conditions which Morley wasn't sure would suit.
"He was racing well out of his class so I hope the handicapper isn't too tough on him because there's not much of him." Proving class can overcome just about anything, Hanger ignored the heavy conditions to win the 3-year-old 1400m, the Fasttrack Insurance. The O'Reilly gelding cruised up and put paid to the opposition in a few strides, rating him as one of the future stars.
