Mega Queen ripe for right royal run

IT'S always tough to line up Port Lincoln form, but an eye-catching performance by Mega Queen at Morphettville confirmed she has talent to burn.

IT'S always tough to line up Port Lincoln form, but an eye-catching performance by Mega Queen at Morphettville confirmed what the locals thought - she has talent to burn.

At her most recent effort in April, the three-year-old showed her first two wins on the West Coast were no fluke, coming from last to finish an unlucky fourth, just 1.7 lengths behind two promising types in Petman and Hidden Value.

After a couple of months off the scene, Mega Queen returns to Morphettville tomorrow for her fourth start and trainer Stacey Kotz thinks she's still improving.

"We've just had a few little niggly issues with her but we've got them right now and we're going to start again," Kotz said yesterday.

"Whatever she does this weekend, she's going to benefit from, she's still learning.

"I reckon she'll get over a bit further, but we'll just take one run at a time and go from there.

"She's definitely got some talent."

The daughter of Comet faces a tough test in the Pewsey Vale 0-75 Hcp (1050m), taking on the likes of last start winners Avoid Lightning and Any Destination, along with Victorian raiders Soul Mama from the Peter Moody stable and Robert Smerdon's Light Touch.

Dom Tourneur will ride Mega Queen, who is likely to settle towards the back of the field and do her best work late.

Kotz is hopeful of snaring her second city winner, after tasting success a couple of times with Carbon Date in 2009.

It was one of the reasons she and her family moved from Port Lincoln to train at Strathalbyn three months ago.

"It's really hard to travel from Port Lincoln all the time and if you have a good ones, the owners tend to want to keep them in Adelaide and that was what happened with Carbon Date," she said.

"We thought, 'we want to train the good ones too', and our kids are old enough now so we thought we'd make the move."

The 32-year-old spent time as a jockey, apprenticed to Wayne Drewitt and riding "about 40 winners" but prefers life as a trainer and is hoping for more opportunities now she's closer to town.

"It's more hands on and you've got more to do with them," Kotz said.

"We've got five, but they're all young - it's a new team and we'll start again."