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Leading Sydney and Newcastle stables will meet some tough north coast opposition in next week’s $100,000 Port Macquarie Cup.

The 2000m race will be the first Port Macquarie Cup on the newly reconstructed course proper and is set to draw a classy field from the major training centres.

However trainers from Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour are ready and waiting with several in-form gallopers who have already clinched berths in the final field through qualifying races.

They include Sofin and Don’t Nicme, the first and second placegetters from last Sunday’s Port Cup Prelude, and the runaway Lismore Cup winner Collaboration.

Collaboration, trained at Coffs Harbour by Joanne Hardy for a Hong King based syndicate, found his English form when he won the Lismore Cup (2100m) by more than 10 lengths.

The horse was bought in England by clients of the Chris Waller stable after he had won five races in the UK but was put on the market after disappointing in his early Australian starts.

He was bought by Hardy for the Hong Kong syndicate and was having only his fourth start for her when he won the Lismore Cup on

Sofin also produced an excellent Port Cup trial when she won the Prelude for another Coffs Harbour trainer Shannon Fry, who has only two horses in work.

“The beauty of having only one or two horses is that I can give them a lot of time and understand every little trait they have,” Fry said.

“That can be especially so with mares like Sofin, they often need more attention.”

Don’t Nicme was having only his second start for Port Macquarie trainer Tas Morton after being switched to him from a provincial stable and is confident he wil be harder to beat in the Port Cup.

“He is going to be even better for the Cup with another two weeks of work behind him,” Morton said.

“The horse is owned by friends of mine and they wanted to target the Port Cup with him so they sent him to me and now we are in it.”

Another Port Cup contender is Pirate Ben, trained at Wyong by Damien Lane.

Pirate Ben won successive races at Randwick and Cantertbury before a freshen up and at his last run finished fourth in the Dubbo Cup.

“He wasn’t suited by the heavy track at Dubbo but he has done well since. The Port Cup is his mission,” Lane said.