The Kody Nestor-trained Fast Talking is set to be one of the Country Championships finalists contesting this weekend's loaded Bathurst RSL Club Soldier's Saddle (1400m).
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Prizemoney for the race has more than doubled for this year and that has attracted arguably the strongest group of nominations the feature has known.
Saturday's headline event attracted 44 nominations in total, much to the delight of Bathurst Thoroughbred Racing manager Michelle Tarpenning.
"It's very exciting. It's gone from $32,000 to $80,000 and we've received great nominations for that race," she said.
"It's acknowledging the status of the race and the credibility that it's gained over the years. It's such an iconic race. Racing NSW have said to us that 'this is your feature day' and other clubs had been given money for their feature days.
"The nominations have been great and hopefully the acceptances will be strong as well. The track's looking great, at a Good 4, and the cover is fantastic."
Fast Talking was put forward by Nestor having scored an eye-catching fourth-placed finish in the $400,000 Country Championships Final (1400m) last start.
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The gelding powered home and hit the line well at Randwick and he could be joined by two other finalists at Bathurst.
Bennelong Dancer, the only horse to contest three Country Championships Finals, has been nominated by Donna Scott after running 13th in the 2020 edition while Stephen Jones' Hit The Target finished at the back of the field in that feature and has also been nominated for Saturday's event at Tyers Park.
Nestor's Fast Talking is also one of three Dubbo horses nominated for the race.
The Allan Gibson-trained California Fox ran third in the Country Championships Qualifier at Coonamble last time out and was an emergency for the final.
The third of the Dubbo hopes put forward also has a Country Championships connection.
Good Host ran in the 2018 final at Randwick for Justin Stanley but is now under the care of trainer Janelle Galea.
Good Host may find it tricky to earn a spot in the final field given the strength of the nominations.
As well as the three Country Championships finalists there is a number of metropolitan and provincial hopes, headlined by a pair from the stables of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott team.
Got Your Six and Regal Stages were put forward by the champion pair while there is also a host of hometown hopes among the nominations.
The only thing missing for Bathurst's main event of the racing season will be the crowd as restrictions around the ongoing lockdown continue.
Tarpenning is just pleased that the day will even be able to go ahead thanks to the work done by Racing NSW.
"It's been a long time between drinks for us, probably six to seven weeks, but I'm just so happy the industry is still up and running and that we get to hold our big race," she said.
"There's a raft of policies and procedures we have to implement with these government restrictions, and it is disappointing to have no crowd on our feature day, but I can't imagine how I'd feel if we weren't racing.
"I'm really delighted that we're all on track for Saturday."
There were 165 nominations in total for the seven-race meeting with final fields to be confirmed on Thursday.
