Megablast takes out Listed Caloundra Cup

Multiple Group One-winning trainer Nigel Tiley produced a top performance to get his first Australian win when Megablast won the Listed Caloundra Cup on Saturday.

And jockey Damian Browne put a tumultuous week behind him to guide Megablast ($3.60) to a three lengths win over First Crush ($10) with three-quarters of a length to the favourite Tradesman ($2.70) in third.

Browne has won seven stakes races on Caloundra Cup day in the past eight years and again showed why he is the premier jockey at the track with a superb ride.

He has won three Sunshine Coast Guineas, three Caloundra Cups and a Glasshouse Sprint.

He was suspended for two months last week on a handling charge from a meeting on June 1 and has been riding on a stay.

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“I have maintained my innocence and will be appealing. It has been hard to concentrate during the week,” Browne said.

While Brown deserved plenty of accolades so did Tiley who had to miss the Brisbane Cup and Tattersall’s Cup with Megablast after the gelding knocked a sesamoid.

“He didn’t miss much work and we have been able to put plenty into him for today,” Tiley.

A stakes win in Australia may have been a first for Tiley as a trainer but he was a multiple Group winning jockey at Australian carnivals.

In 1982 he had an outstanding autumn carnival winning the Tancred and QE Stakes (Prince Majestic), Doncaster and All Aged (My Gold Hope) and the Sydney Cup (Azawary).