Inverell Jockey Club’s new president, Peter Tanner, hopes the Bush Battlers Cup will become a regular event.

"The club appreciates the support of trainers in the North West to make the race a success and hopefully it will become a regular feature that helps the one-day clubs attract runners in future years,” he said.

The Bush Battlers Cup is a special-conditions 1400-metres race open for horses that have qualified by competing at any of the nine one-day clubs in the area that offered full TAB prizemoney.

The IJC is delighted to have a full field of 15 horses with benchmark ratings ranging from 62 to 38.

Gavin Groth qualified About Time with a win at Narrabri before returning from a spell with a first-up win at Gunnedah, and heads the weights with 62 kilograms.

Warwick Avenue (61kg) has had a remarkable turnaround in form since an unplaced qualifying run at Bundarra, which was followed by wins at Armidale (twice) and Scone. The horse will be ridden by Queensland apprentice Nicholas Keal, who will claim 1.5kg.

Michelle Fleming’s St Luke (59.5kg) qualified at Glen Innes and Narrabri and is a last-start winner at Scone.

The three horses are the top weights and could be described as the better battlers, although they are expected to face stiff competition from Inverell-trained Victory Lass (quailed at Deepwater) and Bonnie Sare (qualified at Mungindi).

Moree’s Nathan Sinclair, a bit of a battler himself, has three runners in the race including new stable star Going Grey, who won a lowly class 1 at Bundara to qualify but has since won impressively at Inverell (non-TAB) and Moree (Sky2 TAB) and will have the services of Terry Treichel to navigate through the field in the long Inverell straight.