Final Albury Gold Cup field among strongest in club's history

There is also plenty of star factor among the trainers targeting the Border's richest race with runners from the stables of Chris Waller, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Bjorn Baker and Lindsay Park.

Highlighting the quality and depth of the field, last year's winner - the Ron Stubbs trained Spunlago - was named first emergency.

However, Spunlago is still set to defend his cup crown after the scratching of the John Sargent-trained Foxborough shortly after acceptances yesterday.

Club chief executive officer Steve Hetherton was beaming with the final field and anticipated the cup to be hotly contested with the amount of depth in the race.

"It's a quality field and with Spunlago named first emergency just proves how strong it is," Hetherton said.

"There is a while to go before the race and if there are a few scratchings because of wide barriers, we will just have to wait and see.

"When you see stables like Waller, Waterhouse, Baker, Tony McEvoy, Nick Ryan and Lindsay Park target the cup it's exciting for the club.

"It just highlights how big a race the Albury Cup is when it's on the radar of some of the nation's biggest stables.

"The most pleasing aspect is most of the gallopers from those stables are proven performers in Group and Listed races and not the stables second string stayers."

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The Waterhouse and Bott-trained Hush Writer's chances took a hit after drawing awkwardly in barrier 15 in the 16-horse field.

Hush Writer is a winner of more than $700,000 in prizemoney and won the Group 3 Newcastle Cup alongside the AJC St Leger Stakes two years ago.

Stablemate Entente is also a proven country cup performer after winning the Port Macquarie Cup last year and finishing just outside the placings in the Canberra Cup at his most recent start.

The Nick Ryan-trained Mahamedeis will appreciate a drop in class after contesting races the calibre of the Group Two Feehan Stakes and Group Two Herbert Power Stakes over the recent Melbourne Spring carnival.

The Waller trained The Lord Mayor also boasts solid recent form in Listed grade.

The Lord Mayor won the Listed Wyong Cup last September as well as running third and fourth in Listed grade at his past two starts.

Stablemate Miss Sentimental has also contested several Group races.

"Once you start delving into the form you soon see how much quality is in the field," Hetherton said.

"It's a hot field and while it's always hard to compare fields from past years, I feel it's right up there as far as depth is concerned with only one or two cups slightly stronger.

"With the forecast of a lot more rain in Sydney in the coming days and a guaranteed heavy track, you would like to think most of those Sydney based horses will come to Albury.

"But only time will tell."

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