Tommy Brislane Takes Out The 2014 Group One Megastar Final
Tommy Brislane is the 2014 Group One Megastar champion, after leading all the way from box three Friday night at Dapto, to secure the title for trainer Steve White and owner Geoff Slattery.
Starting at $8.30 with punters, the son of Premier Fantasy and Mary Virginia was having his first start for a month, after finishing second at Wentworth Park in the NSW National Sprint Final to Chica Destacada.
Trainer Steve White was happy with the box draw of three and was just hoping for some luck in the early stages.
“I think he's well boxed. It's a very hard race as it should be for a group one and he just needs some luck running through the first corner.”
Tommy Brislane was best away with Tony Brett's Flash Reality matching strides early on. The 34kg chaser bumped him off at the first turn and shot away down the back over Mark Gatt's Ritza Hattie, who was making good ground along the rail. Coming to the home turn Ritza Hattie made one last surge and missed by a neck in the end, with Tommy Brislane securing $75,000 for elated connections.
“Once he went past me on the home turn I started cheering, then I saw on the TV that Ritza Hattie was getting closer and I was just hoping he could hang on. Mark Gatt has done a great job to get that dog back to her best after four months,” explained White.
“With so many group winning dogs in the race, Tommy (Brislane) had been trialling well and I was hoping he would jump as well as what he had been.”
“When he bumped off Flash Reality at the first turn, I started to think he could win and I'm really happy for the owner as well.”
Tommy Brislane burst onto the scene back in April at Wentworth Park and won seven of his first eight career starts, including a heat and semi final of the Group One Peter Mosman Classic in 29.71. After finishing fifth in the final, he returned one week later to clock a sizzling time of 29.51 over the 520m, stamping his authority as a genuine Group race contender.
White's next target will hopefully be the Group One Topgun at the end of October.
“I hope he can make the Top Gun now off the back of that performance and I'll probably put him in the Bob Payne series as well.”
Tommy Brislane now has an impressive prizemoney total of $116,890 and recorded his tenth win on Friday night from fourteen career starts.
Group One Dapto Megastar Final Results:
1st – Tommy Brislane – Steve White ($75,000)
2nd – Ritza Hattie – Mark Gatt ($15,000)
3rd – Flash Reality – Tony Brett ($7,500)
4th – Woods – Marie Burton
5th – Chica Destacada – Doreen Drynan
6th – Lacey Lois – Peter Acers
7th – Zipping Willow – Jason Mackay
8th – Shoulders – Anthony Azzopardi
S1: 5.34 (4)
S2: 17.09 (3)
Run Home: 12.73
Time: 29.82
Margins: Neck x 3 ½