Ready to blast his Aussie rivals

NIGEL Tiley is shooting for Aussie riches with Megablast after the good looking grey beat his rivals effortlessly at Ellerslie on Saturday.

‘‘I’ll nominate him for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday,’’ Tiley declared after jockey Michael Coleman had been given an armchair winning ride in the Bridges Insurance 1600.

‘‘He’s a class horse and it could be a wet spring in Melbourne, you never know,’’ added Tiley who trains the horse at Pukekohe for Dr John and Di Bowbyes who also bred the Shinko King gelding.

Firstly Tiley will take the horse to Sydney and tackle the Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on September 16.

A good run there would tempt him to then look at the Metropolitan Handicap (2400m) a fortnight later with the 6-year-old.

After that Melbourne may be calling all going to plan.

Coleman settled the warm favourite in the rear early in Saturday’s race.

With minimal effort the combination moved smoothly into contention and strode clear for the horse’s eighth wn.

Tiley ventured to Melbourne with Megablast earlier in the winter.

After an encouraging fresh-up second at Moonee Valley, he didn’t fire on a firm Flemington track at his following start and returned home.

‘‘He’s a classy horse and handles these conditions well,’’ Coleman said at Ellerslie where racing was held on a Heavy11 surface.

He’’s Dan got his winning jumps tally underway in the first on the card for Pukeatua horseman Andrew Meikle.

It came at the 9-year-old’s third hurdle attempt.

Originally trained by Glynn Brick at Cambridge for the Keeper gelding’s breeders Sue Baker and John Allan he recently came under the care of Meikle.

His new trainer co-owns He’s Dan with his sister Cate and when they couldn’t find a suitable flat race they decided to tackle the hurdles.

Ridden by Emily Farr he made the pace as in the majority of his seven flat wins.

‘‘He’s not the best jumper,’’ Farr said.

‘‘But when he gets it wrong he’s clever enough to get out of it.’’

Meikle will take it as it comes with He’s Dan whether it be on the flat or over the jumps.

Farr also won the next race on All Zedin Done.