A Big Dance Qualifier and the resurrection of a historic event is creating plenty of excitement at Forbes Jockey Club.
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This weekend is the club's biggest of the year, with the Forbes Cup headlining a bumper meeting on Sunday.
The $50,000 cup is also a qualifier for the Big Dance, a $2 million race to be run at Randwick on Melbourne Cup Day, and that helped attract a strong 33 nominations.
Sydney trainers like Anthony Cummings, Bjorn Baker, Tracey Bartley and Richard Litt are all in the mix but a number of western area trainers also put forward chances.
"It's attracting a lot of interest," Forbes Jockey Club president Randall Grayson said.
"We want to host the best and most successful race day we can to promote the town."
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Nominations for the cup were released on Tuesday and Dubbo trainers Brett Robb, Clint Lundholm and Michael Mulholland were all represented.
Former Forbes Cup winner Mullholland, fresh from a Coonabarabran double, put forward Reward Seeker.
Mulholland went close to scoring back-to-back feature wins at Forbes last year as Reward Seeker finished second to From The Bush 12 months after stablemate The Sledgehammer won the event.
Reward Seeker also won the Wellington Cup and was runner-up in the Dubbo Gold Cup last year but is yet to place in three starts this preparation.
Dubbo duo Robb and Lundholm nominated two proven country cup performers in A Magic Zariz and Notabadidea respectively.
Narromine trainer Kyle Kennedy is also in the mix with Wild Rocket while Wellington's Peter Stanley nominated Not Negotiating.
One of the other main events on Sunday will be the Amazing Ben Hall Bullet (1200m).
"The tradition of the Ben Hall Bullet has been lost for almost 40 years and we are passionate about re-establishing the race to generate local interest and to create some nostalgia around our club's 161-year history," Grayson said.
"We did some research and found it in Trove, so we thought we'd bring it back to life - the 'Amazing' part is a Forbes tourism tag.
"It was initially a Benchmark 64 race, but we've upgraded it to a 74 to attract a better class of horse.
"The Forbes Cup is now one of the 25 qualifying Country Cups for the [$2 million] Big Dance so our thinking is some of the city trainers coming might put another horse on the truck for the Ben Hall.
"The opportunity to host the Big Dance qualifier is a major drawcard for us this year.
"And the upgrade to a Country Showcase meeting and the decision to continue with the shift from a Monday meeting to a Sunday is also another big drawcard."
The Bullet attracted 22 nominations, with leading Moruya sprinter Kattegat a top contender for trainer Natalie Jarvis.
Final fields will be released on Thursday.
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