Thirteen runners are due to face the starter in Friday’s Port Macquarie Cup, a Big Dance eligibility race.
With the race offering the incentive of a place in a $3 million showdown in Sydney on Melbourne Cup day, several big name city trainers are making a play for the honours.
The Cup presents as an open betting race.
Chris Waller has loaded up with three runners which includes the two main fancies Medatzu ($4) and Elliptical ($4.60), while The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Bear On The Loose is the third favourite at $5.50.
The Toowoomba Cup winner Cavalry Man ($6.50) makes the trip from Brisbane for trainer Lindsay Gough with the Matthew Smith trained Fiopropero and Waller’s third runner Unlimited, who are both currently quoted at $9, being the only other runners marked up at odds of less than $14.
So, there is a strong chance that one of these stables will come away with an ‘away’ win.
Supplementing the raiders are the likes of Don Diego De Vera (from the stable of Scone based Annabel and Rob Archibald) … Rothrock (who races out of Newcastle for trainer Paul Perry) … and King Jerry (for Muswellbrook trainer Joel Wilkes).
Two runners, the Karen Owen trained Fay’s Angels and the Darren Treacy trained Dance Dance Dance come from within relative touching distance of Port Macquarie with their Taree base being less than 100km down the road … which leaves trainer Peter Cheers as the sole representative from the Port Macquarie training ranks, defending his home turf with Creative Righteous and Casino Bear … a tough gig in the circumstances with his runners quoted at $34 and $81 respectively.
