3 minute read
The coronavirus pandemic has not prevented an impressive list of entries from NSW and Victorian stables for Friday's Albury Gold Cup meeting.
A total of 227 entries were received for Friday's eight-race card including 29 nominations for the $200,000 Commercial Club Albury Gold Cup (2000m).
Top Sydney trainers Peter and Paul Snowden, Bjorn Baker and the Gai Waterhouse/.Adrian Bott stable have delivered on their promise to support the carnival.
The Snowdens have nominated recent Melbourne winner Mount Tabora for the Albury Gold Cup, Baker has entered the Group 3 winner Fun Fact and Waterhouse and Bott are represented by last start Melbourne winner Ulusaba.
Other Sydney trainers with Cup entries include Joe Pride (Kaapfever), David Payne (All Too Soon), Matthew Smith (Attorney) and Richard and Michael Freedman (Pumpkin Pie)
Victorian entries for the Albury Cup include the Lindsay Park-trained stablemates Royal Thunder and Sin To Win, the Anthony Freedman-trained Just Benjamin, Under Oath (Henry Dwyer) and the Richard Laming stablemates All Hard Wood and He Ecksels.
"The nominations for the carnival are fantastic under the circumstances," said a relieved Albury Racing Club chief executive Steve Hetherton.
"All the supporting races have stood up well and there is a lot of depth in the entries."
Albury Racing Club is offering more than $770,000 in prizemoney and bonuses over the two days of the carnival on Thursday and Friday, an amount that will be underwritten in part by Racing NSW to offset the huge loss in revenue the club will suffer by having to stage the carnival meetings behind closed doors.
"The Cup carnival underpins our finances for the whole year and without the crowds we will suffer a huge loss in income," Hetherton said.
'We were budgeting for more than 13,000 through the gates on Friday – that is money we have no way of recouping.
"Last year we lost our Cup meeting due to heavy rain on race morning. It would have been a disaster for the club if this year's carnival had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus.
"Thankfully for the industry there is no loss of prizemoney as we are racing on Thursday and Friday."