Twelve runners set to contest Friday's Albury Gold Cup

Only 12 runners accepted for the $200,000 Listed feature.

Not since 2016 when the Anthony Freedman-trained Tom Melbourne beat eight rivals in his memorable cup victory with Glen Boss aboard has there been a smaller field.

The final field could be further decimated with Maurice's Medad, Sikandarabad and Gottaluvtrucks all dual acceptors.

Despite the lack of numbers there is still plenty of quality with the top half-a-dozen runners recently contesting Group and Listed races.

Co-trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have the top-weight in Entente who will be out to defend his Albury Gold Cup crown won last year.

Jockey Lee Magorrian has been booked to ride.

Club chief executive officer Steve Hetherton said the cup would still be a keenly contested affair.

"The top end quality in the race is excellent," Hetherton said.

"We are rapt that Entente is coming back to defend his crown after his fantastic win in the race last year and he has since gone on to bigger and better races.

"If you put those top five or six runners under the microscope they have been racing in Group company which is a strong form pointer for an Albury Cup.

"Yes, it's disappointing that we didn't get a full field but that is not isolated to Albury.

"If you look at the racing in Sydney and Melbourne over the past month there has been some small fields as well, especially in the staying races.

"A classic example is the Mornington Cup on Saturday is worth $300,000 and has only eight runners.

"So we are not going to dwell on having a dozen runners.

"There are also a couple of local runners in our cup which is always pleasing to see."

ALSO IN SPORT

Traditionally there are a lot more Victorian raiders who target Albury's premier race.

Peter Moody, Lindsay Park, Tom Dabernig, Nick Ryan, Anthony Freedman and Tony McEvoy are all Victorian stables who have targeted the cup in recent years.

However, Lindsay Park (Dark Dream) and Sam Kavanagh (Sikandarabad) and Leon and Troy Corstens (Look Sharpish) are the only Victorian trainers with runners in the cup on Friday.

There is also a lack of high-profile hoops from Victoria with Moonee Valley racing Friday night making it logistically impossible to ride at both meetings with the Albury Cup at 4.55pm.

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