COUNTRY cups specialist Shazza's Bubbles headlines 23 candidates for Friday's $35,000 Robert Oatley Vineyards Mudgee Cup (1600m).
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Trained at Taree by Ross Stitt, the six-year-old mare won the Sawtell Cup at Coffs Harbour in July as well as the Hopkins Livermore Cup at Taree in October.
Since that most recent win she has finished second in the Muswellbrook Cup before heading to Sydney, where she finished second last behind Festivity.
She has also tasted success over the mile at Mudgee, being a winner of the Gooree Cup back in May, beating Binalong Road among others.
Overall, the Southern Image (USA) x Tara Na mare has won eight races from 37 starts for prizemoney of almost $180,000.
A total of 23 horses have been nominated for the feature race, with Shazza's Bubbles joined by Cameron Crockett's old warhorse Are You Sure, Brett Thompson's grey star Slate On Edge, multiple country cup placegetter Sooner Or Later and the in-form pair of Topmast (Leon Davies) and Tuliman (Peter Nestor).
While the cup will be the main event on the day, the meeting as a whole should feature some good racing based on the nominations received.
Warwick Farm trainer Bjorn Baker unveiled a pair of handy performers at Orange recently in Count De Vega and Hendrix.
Both were ridden to debut victories by Greg Ryan, and the former Kiwi trainer has nominated the pair for separate events on Friday.
Count De Vega, which sat three wide for the entire trip but still won by almost three lengths, has been nominated for a Class 2 event over 1200m while Hendrix's most likely path is through a Class 1 Handicap over the 1400m journey.
Baker has made a habit of sending horses to the bush to get some confidence in recent times and he will also be looking to do the same with Hachoir, a four-year-old gelding that has been nominated to make his debut in the Hamilton Island Maiden Handicap (1200m).
Weights for the Mudgee Cup meeting will be released on Tuesday, with the final fields to be declared on Wednesday morning.