One of the strongest fields seen at Dubbo Turf Club is set to contest this year's $100,000 Gold Cup.
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Nominations for Sunday's feature event were released on Tuesday and they are dominated by some of the biggest names in racing.
With the Gold Cup offering eligibility for this year's Big Dance - the $2 million event to be run at Randwick on Melbourne Cup Day - there's a huge amount of interest from the premier city stables.
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Australia's leading trainer Chris Waller headlines the 32 nominations for the 1600m cup with his recent Group 3 runner Giannis while Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Bjorn Baker, Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou, and Annabel Neasham are also in with a chance of being represented out west this weekend.
"Having those sort of names in the race brings a lot of attention and draws attention of people who might not normally look at the Dubbo Cup," Dubbo Turf Club general manager Sam Fitzgerald said.
"They're the sort of names that bring greater attention to the race and that's the whole reason for the Big Dance, to lift the profile of these country cups and draw a new crowd to racing in country NSW."
While the star power of this year's country cups which offer Big Dance eligibility is undeniable, the initiative has been divisive.
There's been opposition from a huge amount of people in regional areas who feel the opportunity for country trainers to win, or even compete in, their hometown cups has been taken away.
Nineteen of the 32 nominations for the Dubbo Gold Cup come from provincial or metropolitan stables while just six are from the western area.
"I can understand that," Fitzgerald said.
"But there's still a place for those high-quality country horses in these races despite the attention from the city trainers, but I can understand people's opposition to it."
City trainers heading to the country is nothing new and Fitzgerald pointed to the 2002 edition of the Gold Cup as proof of that.
The feature event two decades ago was won by Gary Portelli and Osca Warrior while Clarry Conners, John Hawkes, Ross Stitt, Tim Martin and John Morish completed the top six places in the field.
Fitzgerald also pointed to the rest of the nominations of Sunday as proof of strength of racing in the western area.
A strong number of Dubbo trainers are represented throughout the nominations while horses from stables in the Hunter, north-west and Canberra were also put forward.
There was 199 nominations in total put forward for the eight-race meeting.
"They (nominations) seem very strong," Fitzgerald said.
"The cup has attracted good represented from major metropolitan, provincial and country stables.
"In the supporting program we've seen some really strong nominations for the Vince Gordon Flying and the Country Magic Class 2 Plate and there's strong nominations for Maiden Plate and lower class races as well."
This year marks the first time the Flying Handicap sprint has been rebranded as the Vince Gordon Flying, after the former general manager of the club died following a battle with cancer in March.
The nominations for that feature sprint include Great Buy and Dalavin (Brett Robb), Burning Crown (Sue Grills), Bugalugs (Scott Singleton), Commando Hunt and Don'tforgetmonica (Cameron Crocket), Magnetic (Leon and Troy Corstens), Larynx (Brett Thompson) and Healing Hands (Gayna Williams).
There is the threat of rain in the lead-up to Sunday's meeting, the heaviest of which is tipped to fall on Thursday, but a healthy racing surface is still expected to be on show.
"The track has really surprised us all with how it's improved since the rain on the weekend," Fitzgerald said.
"We've rated it conservatively at a Soft 5 but realistically it's probably better than that. There's quite a bit of room to move depending on how much room to move later in the week.
"If we get the rain that is forecast we will be racing on a heavy track but our track has proved during the wet winter and heavy racing schedule it does drain impeccably well and hold together impeccably."
Final fields for Sunday's showcase meeting - which will offer more than a quarter-of-a-million dollars in prizemoney - will be released on Thursday.
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Nick Guthrie
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
I started working at the Daily Liberal in 2013 and now hold the position of senior journalist. I cover all that's happening in sport in Dubbo and the wider western area and have a passion for doing so. If you've got a story that needs telling, reach out.
