ALBURY Racing Club has attracted another strong field for tomorrow's Albury Gold Cup after some of NSW racing's biggest names accepted with runners for the $180,000 feature on Wednesday.
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Leading Sydney trainer partnerships Peter and Paul Snowden alongside Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott both have starters in the Riverina's richest race.
Snowden's accepted with recent Randwick City Stakes placegetter Emperor's Way.
While Waterhouse will be aiming for her first Gold cup victory with her progressive stayer Taikomochi.
Taikomochi finished runner-up in the Canberra Cup and will have to overcome the tricky barrier draw of 15.
Despite being nominated for his hometown cup at Mornington, Ambitious will make the trek to Albury for trainer Anthony Freedman and has been allocated top-weight of 62 kilograms.
The Japanese import is one of the best credentialed horses to ever contest an Albury Gold Cup and has amassed almost $3.5 million in prizemoney.
Freedman is a previous winner of the Albury feature with Tom Melbourne in 2016.
He also finished runner-up with Cool Chap two years ago.
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace will have their first Albury cup runner with Thunder Cloud.
While Team Hayes will be chasing its third cup with Valac.
Chris Scholtz, racing editor of Racing and Sports, rated the final field particularly strong given the strong competition from the Sydney carnival and the Mornington Cup on Saturday.
"I think it's a terrific field compared to the last few years when the cup has been struggling - nobody's going to deny that," Scholtz said.
"Obviously there is a lot of competition for horses with the Sydney carnival in full swing and Mornington also holding its cup meeting.
"The prizemoney in the city has gone ahead that much in the last couple of years.
"While Albury remains the richest country cup in NSW, the $180,000 on offer pales into insignificance compared to what is on offer in the city.
"So to be able to attract this type of field at this time of year is a huge credit to the Albury Racing Club."
MORE ALBURY GOLD CUP NEWS
Border trainers Craig Widdison and Ron Stubbs both have runners.
Widdison will be chasing back-to-back cups with Ruby Skye while Stubbs will saddle-up Spunlago who finished midfield in the Canberra cup.
Jockey Glyn Schofield will be riding in his first Albury Gold Cup and has been booked to ride the Snowden-trained Emperor's Way.
In-form hoop Christian Reith will partner the Barbara Joseph-trained Almost Court.
Reith won the group 1 Coolmore Classic last weekend aboard Dixie Blossom.
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