Late-starting Mega Fight another battling Royale for trainer
By Ray Hickson
It might seem a long bow to draw between an 11-start maiden and a 10-time winner, but trainer Robert Price can see a bit of stable warhorse Cuban Royale in three-year-old Mega Fight.
The latter has collected $42,000 and change, while the former is a stakes winner with more than $825,000 in the bank. But if Price is correct about the parallels, then Mega Fight’s future is bright.
Trainer Robert Price believes Mega Fight’s 12th start could be his lucky one.Credit: Getty
After the gelding’s luckless last-start second at Hawkesbury last month, Price can see plenty of positives about Mega Fight going into the De Bortoli Wines Plate (1500m) at the same track today and hopes start 12 is the lucky one.
“You’d like to think so, a lot of people bag him out as a non-winner,” he said.
“Old Cuban Royale took nine starts to break through and look what he’s done. It wasn’t us working him out, it was him working out what he was supposed to be doing.
“Look at him now, he’s rising 10 years old and attacked the line on Saturday like a tiger.
“We know there’s plenty of natural ability there with Mega Fight, we know he handles a soft track.”
Mega Fight has been an odds-on favourite in his past two defeats, including a narrow one at Newcastle 10 days before his Hawkesbury second, where he went home with a decent excuse.
The gelding missed the start by more than five lengths and went down by less than 1½ lengths to Another Fortune, leaving Price to wonder what might have been.
On that occasion, he drew the inside barrier and Price, who co-trains with son Luke, feels he might have been waiting around for the jump for too long and became restless, something that shouldn’t happen from a wider alley.
“It was a freakish thing, he’s kicked when the gates opened and got his hoof wedged in the back of the barriers,″ he said.
“There’s too much time for him to think. He gets in there dancing around and feeling busy, he always wants to be on the go. He won’t be in there for long this time.
“I’m not going to panic in regard to Mega Fight, the owners haven’t lost faith in the horse. I’m hoping everything falls into place.”
Supplied by Racing NSW
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