While he himself admits that it won't have quite the same big moment feeling without a crowd there to cheer all the competitors on, it's hard for Kody Nestor to look at his two country champ final entrants and feel anything but thrilled.
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"There's still quite a bit of excitement," the Dubbo based trainer said on the eve of a trip to Royal Randwick.
"Though to me it's just a race; at the end of the day a horse race is a horse race, it's a bit less exciting without the crowds there, but I think I've done everything right and everything we can to make sure we're ready."
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Nestor will have both Fast Talking and Sneak Preview in action in the final, after both horses earned passage with stand-out performances at the Coonamble qualifier.
"Obviously, having the two in is a big boost as well," Nestor said.
For Nestor and his hard-working team, the final isn't just the next step, but a fitting reward for years of hard work.
"We've only been doing this a few years now, so it's great to see it happen, it all started out feeding one horse in my garage, so to be here now is really good," Nestor said.
"It's a big tick, but not just for me, for the whole team and it is a big team effort."
The stable has gone from strength to strength, with a number of big wins in the past twelve months and some extremely promising horses being trained by Nestor.
"We've been going really good, the stable's definitely built up well and it's good to be in their involved in a race that to me and a lot of other country trainers is really the pinnacle of country racing," Nestor said.
WIth preparation going well despite the adverse conditions offered by the COVID-19 outbreak, probably the only significant setback has been the loss of winning jockeys Greg Ryan and Matt Cahill, who rode Fast Talking and Sneak Preview in Coonamble but won't be available this weekend.
Instead, Nestor will have veterans Tim Clark and Nash Rawiller in the saddle.
"I won't have too many instructions, they're both top blind jockeys, I rode with them myself back in the day and you just have to look at their record to see the quality of work they put in."