Adam Olszanski is impressed by the full field of 14.

“I think it’s a good competitive race, there’s a number of city-performed horses and recent Country Cup winners,” he said.

“There’s Donald Cup winner Romancer, which has found form for Darren Weir and you’ve got some Cup winners north of the Border, which adds some different form lines.”

Albury trainer Mitch Beer’s Dreams of Paris claimed the Cootamundra Cup in September, while Gary Colvin’s Danetrille snared the Griffith Cup three weeks earlier.

“I would say Dreams of Paris would be the biggest hope of those around the Border area,” Olszanski said.

But the race caller maintains a visitor is the greatest threat.

“If Gold Fields can run the race to his advantage, his biggest asset is he’s got great early pace and can run strongly in the mid-section, which often puts a lot of horses out of their comfort zone,” he said.

“It all depends on how they (apprentice jockey Zac Spain) ride him and they get the tactics right, if they roll along at a more than genuine gallop, then Gold Fields around a tight track would be awfully hard to run down, given what he did at Sandown last start.”

The six-year-old won the 1400m race last week with another Cup contender – Wodonga trainer Craig Widdison’s Wyangle – finishing fourth.

Widdison also has Ruby Skye.

“Ruby Skye also comes through some lower benchmark races, the last couple of wins was a Class Two in a (benchmark) 58, which wouldn’t really stack up,” Olszanski said.

Romancer is the topweight with 58kgs.

“Darren Weir will always command some preference with the punters no doubt,” he said.

“There’s a sense of momentum with Romancer, it was just trying to find some from in the earlier races, and a couple of the runs, the Bairnsdale Cup and Sale Cup, were encouraging, but it was really when he got to Donald and put it all together, he could easily take another step from that.”

Wodonga & District Turf Club general manager Tom O’Connor is delighted with the field.

“Obviously there’s a great representation of Melbourne trainers but, more importantly, there’s a number of local trainers having a genuine crack.”