He's the horse who took 16 starts to score a win before moving to the Wellington stables of Mick Mulholland and quickly becoming a cult hero.

The Sledgehammer has won four successive races - the Forbes Cup and Narromine Cup among them - since moving west but he faces his biggest test this weekend when he'll line up in the $100,000 Dubbo Gold Cup.

Much has been written and said about one of the most rapid rises in racing and while Mulholland has received a huge amount of praise for turning around The Sledgehammer's career, the veteran trainers knows a lot of it also has to do with a jockey he feels "blessed" to work with.

Sunday's Gold Cup will not only be the biggest event of the The Sledgehammer's career up to this point, but also that of Kath Bell-Pitomac.

The mature-age apprentice has been in career best form in recent times and has been in the saddle for each of the four wins with The Sledgehammer.

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The now six-year-old gelding was among the 27 nominations for the $100,000 event and despite some high calibre runners from the city set to line up against some bush stars, there's no way Mulholland would be changing jockeys.

"This will be her day out," Mulholland said.

"She does a great amount of work, unbelievable. Any job she goes to she gives 110 per cent.

"That's the kind of person she is and she's getting the rewards now."

The jockey's efforts are even more impressive given there was a chance she would never ride again after a horror fall at Tamworth in March of last year.

She was left with a brain injury and still struggles with her eyesight slightly today but put in a huge amount of work during her recovering into fine-tuning her technique.

"She's got a lot of guts to come back," Mulholland added.

Her efforts have helped make The Sledgehammer a horse Mulholland has been asked about plenty in recent times.

"Everyone asks how he's going and people want to take photos," the trainer said.

"It's good and there's a bit of interest in bush racing everywhere.

"There's Kim Waugh and some others coming (for the Gold Cup) but the locals are still getting a bit of attention."

Waugh is one of a number of city trainers to nominate hopes for Sunday's cup.

Waugh's White Socks will be first-up in the cup, while Williams Freedman has put forward Zaunkonig, and there's three chances from the Bjorn Baker stables among the nominations as well.

The Group 1 winner has nominated Baanone, Bobby Dee, and Boomtown Rat.

Kody Nestor headlines the hometown hopes with the primed Fast Talking and Toulon Brook while Darren Hyde nominated the talented Westlink and Allan Gibson put forward Cowboys Karma.

The Sledgehammer will head into the event having not raced since his stunning Narromine Cup win on August 16.

He's had a bit of a freshen up since then and while his form is outstanding, Mulholland is hoping to see some rain fall on the Dubbo track between now and race day.

"Every run he's had for me has been on a wet track so not sure about that," Mulholland said of racing on a dry surface.

"He likes a bit of give."

Mulholland heads into Sunday as the defending champion of the Gold Cup, having collected the prize in 2019 with Steamin'.

Steamin' is currently in the paddock ahead of a crack at feature events in Coonamble and Coonabarabran later in the year.

As well as the cup, Sunday's showcase meeting features the $50,000 Picnic Championship Final (1400m) as well as the $40,000 Flying Handicap (1100m) sprint.

Nestor is again in the mix in the sprint, with Kosciuszko hopefuls Jailbreak and Sneak Preview set to line up there.

Final fields will be confirmed on Thursday.