Racing: Megablast on a mission

Megablast. Photo / Racing Desk

Events over the next 10 days will determine whether Nigel Tiley will be back in Melbourne in the spring.

The Pukekohe Park trainer is currently putting the finishing touches on Megablast, who will make his Australian debut at Moonee Valley today in the hands of Ben Melham.

"It's a learning curve and we're here to see how he copes with the travel and to this point he has coped very well," Tiley said.

"He's travelled nicely and he enjoyed a working gallop with one of Trent Busuttin's horses this morning at Cranbourne.

"We want to see where he sits over here and if he happened to be dominant then we would be looking at bringing him back over in the spring."

Megablast was in fine touch during his last preparation with wins and placings in the Group 1 Avondale Cup and the Group 3 Waikato Cup. He also finished fourth in both the Group 1 Auckland Cup and the Group 3 Counties Cup.

The grey son of Shinko King resumed last month with a nine length drubbing of his open handicap rivals over a mile to book his overseas passage.

"How he raced at Ellerslie was going to decide where we were going to go with him, whether we were going to stay in New Zealand and aim him at a couple of those winter handicaps or, if he looked impressive, we'd put him on the plane. He couldn't have been more impressive so here we are," Tiley said.

"He's as well as I can get him so I would definitely like to think he's going to acquit himself well and then we'll back him up at Flemington on Saturday week."

Meanwhile, Megablast's former stablemate Oscar Eight won the fourth leg of the Golden Horseshoe series on debut in Singapore last weekend.

Re-named Mr Hanks, the son of Showcasing was stakes placed for Tiley and ended his brief New Zealand career with a close seventh from the outside gate in the Karaka Million.