Star jockey Corey Brown believes Rain Affair is capable of taking a Group 1 race after trouncing the Group 2 Expressway Stakes (1200m) field at Rosehill today.

The Joseph Pride trained hot shot led from the start and scored an eighth win in a row.

In what connections are describing as a career best performance, Rain Affair the $1.45 favourite won by four lengths with Centennial Park and Shoot Out making up the placings.

“He’s always been a good racehorse but today was his best,” Brown said.

“He’s always possessed Group 1 ability.

“He raced like a Group 1 horse so now all we have to do is win one.

Pride was equally impressed with his four-year-old gelding who has won eight of nine starts and over $400,000.

“He needed to do that to those horses under those (track) conditions,” Pride said.

“I wouldn’t expect him to beat them that easily on a dry track but on a wet track he had to do that and he did everything I wanted and probably a little bit more.

“This is the toughest horse I’ve ever come across, he is a machine.

“He’s got no weakness and he’s so arrogant, he treats fields with contempt.”

Pride is aiming high by chasing Australia’s premier sprint the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on March 10.

“I’ve got a few options but I’d like to run him in the Apollo Stakes over 1400 metres at Rosehill in two weeks and then take him down for the Newmarket,” he said.

“I think he needs a bit of racing yet to get to his peak and that’s probably a scary thing for his opposition because I don’t think he’s anywhere near his peak.”