Past 2 winners of Gosford Cup to line up

Destiny’s Kiss and Red Excitement head the weights for the Gosford Gold Cup as each bids for a second win in the provincial feature.

The winner in 2016, Destiny’s Kiss is topweight with 61kg while last year’s winner Red Excitement has half a kilogram less.

Montauk and Mighty Lucky both have 57.5kg in Thursday’s 2100m-race, one of two Listed events at the Central Coast course, the other being the Gosford Guineas (1200m) for three-year-olds.

After a week at the Magic Millions sale at the Gold Coast, Red Excitement’s trainer Gerald Ryan was more than happy with Red Excitement when he arrived home in Sydney.

“I hadn’t seen him for eight days and he looks terrific,” Ryan said.

“He’s really well in himself. It’s a big weight to carry but what you’d expect.”

Brenton Avdulla will ride Red Excitement who finished a half neck second to the Chris Waller-trained Montauk who had a four-kilo advantage in the Summer Cup (2000m) on December 26.

The Gosford-trained Mighty Lucky finished fourth in that race after a close fourth in the Group Two Villiers Stakes (1600m).

Waller also has last-start Randwick winner Hogmanay in the Cup which attracted 12 entries, three from the Kris Lees stable – Singing, Slow Pace and Olympic Academy.

The Guineas had a provisional field of nine ahead of Tuesday’s declaration of final fields.