191 horses were nominated for Sunday’s Cup meeting on Tuesday, 33 of them alone in the $30,000 Hopefuel Gunnedah Gold Cup (1600m).

GJC chairman Kevin Edmonds was delighted with the support and is confident it will be a massive day after the club received excellent noms for the other six support races including 20 in the $20,000 Fuchs Lubricants Lightning Handicap (1000m) and 21 in the $20,0000 XXXX Gold Akwazoff Benchmark 55 Handicap (2050m).

Nominations for Sunday’s metric mile Cup also include last week’s Somerton Cup winner Cervinia as promised by Wyong trainer Damien Lane.

She’s not the only winner from the Thursday Somerton Cup meeting nominated for the Cup.

Coonamble trainer Cecil Hodgson also entered A Magic Zariz, who won last Thursday’s Arthur Gore Memorial (1400m) at Gunnedah’s picturesque Riverside Racecourse.

Hodgson said at the time he thought the Cup might “be a bit solid” but relented to nominate the lightly raced four-year-old gelding.

He had watched A Magic Zariz win standing by Lane, who also hails from Coonamble and who had Mosaytion finish a half length to A Magic Zariz.

“Good to beat the big fella,” Hodgson joked at the time.

He could be lining up to beat “the big fella” again as Lane has also nominated Bench Star as well as Cervinia for the Gunnedah Cup.

Lane isn’t the only trainer with a pair of Cup nominations – Newcastle’s Paul Perry has Peggy’s Cove and Somerton Cup runner-up Torquay and Quirindi’s Geoff O’Brien has nominated Blood Red Moon and Rena’s Lad.

Fellow Quirindi trainers Scott Thompson and Peter Mills are represented by Valatia and Cocktail Time, both of whom ran nice thirds at Gunnedah.

Valatia ran on strongly under a big weight (61kg) in the Somerton Cup to be beaten just over two lengths while Cocktail Time was just over two lengths away from Keith Swan Memorial winner Iwatani.

Mills said before the race his gelding needed a “good blowout” as a lead-up to a possible Gunnedah Gold Cup and that’s exactly what the son of Sippin’ Bourbon got.

Tamworth-trained Our Masquerade was also amongst the nominations, the Craig Martin trained mare coming off a disappointing last start last at Canterbury.

She is raced by a syndicate of owners from Boggabri, Tamworth and Armidale and is a winner at Armidale.

One of her owners is Armidale Jockey Club secretary manager Jim Dedes and he hopes she can atone for that disappointment by gaining a start in the Cup.

She had run second in a Guyra Cup at Armidale recently.

Nothing went right at her last start Dedes recalled.

“The young apprentice was a late replacement too,” he said.

“Hopefully she’ll get a run in the Gunnedah Cup.”

Dedes is also preparing for his club’s return to racing next Tuesday.

“We haven’t raced since ANZAC Day,” he said.

“That was a big day, terrific despite being just five races. The track is pretty good too. Had a couple of frosts so far but we have a good grass cover and after Tuesday we don’t race again until September 9 with our big Albies Cup day.”

Nominations for next Tuesday’s seven-race Armidale TAB meeting close 11am Wednesday.

GUNNEDAH CUP NOMINATIONS (Sunday 1600m – Benchmark ratings noted as available): A Magic Zariz (Cecil Hodgson) 66, About Time (Gavin Groth) 55, Alsoknownas (Peter Englebrecht ) 59, Bench Star (Damien Lane) 53, Blood Red Moon (Geoff O’Brien) 67, Cervinia (Damien Lane) 60, Cocktail Time (Peter Mills) 68, Contralto (Mary Moses) 63, Crooked Stick (Stephen Jones) 83,  Egyptian Ruler (Ken Lantry) 76, Hour Of Peril (Leigh Desreaux) 53, In A Wink (Justin McIntosh) 76, Last Try Wins (Brett Cavanough) 67, Lonely Orphan (Lesley Jeffriess) 69,  Lucky Ima Cugat (Steve Hodge) 62, Lucky Liaison (Michael Mulholland) 70, Mishani Warrior (Shane Edmonds) 79, Mystery Flight (Bill Farrow) 68, Our Masquerade (Craig Martin) 56, Our Sarastro (Connie Greig) 75, Peggy’s Cove (Paul Perry) 64, Queensberry Rules (Jeremy Sylvester), Rena’s Lad (Geoff O’Brien), Sandy Waters (George Woodward) 58, Sculptures (Craig Bermingham) 54, Single Spirit (Ross Stitt) 77, Something Borrowed (Justin Stanley) 73, St Luke (Michelle Fleming) 51, Star Of Legs (Tas Morton) 71, Strictly Concert (Mark Mason) 70, Torquay (Paul Perry) 57, Valatia (Scott Thompson) 60, Wraith Of Odin (Ethan Ensby) 46.