By Colin Hodges
Forbes Jockey Club has received an all time record 193 nominations for the TAB meeting on Sunday including 32 in the $50,000 Bankstown Sports Club Forbes Cup (1600m).
Among the entries for the feature race are winners of the past three Forbes Cups.
From the Gayna Williams stable at Bathurst, From The Bush won the 2021 Cup and in 2022 the Cup winner was One Aye (Randwick winner on Saturday) trained at Canberra by Barbara Joseph and her sons Paul & Matt Jones.
Last year, the heavily backed Kangaroo Court from the powerful Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott stable at Randwick was heavily backed from $2.25 to $1.85 favourite but was well beaten.
Notabadidea, Invincible Dash and Dr Evil set the pace, however, it was the Terry Croft, Hawkesbury-trained Just A Brother (Clayton Gallagher) as a $26 outsider steaming home from well back to beat Ruben Bleu ($9) with Royalzel ($26), a stablemate of the winner in third place.
Again as an outsider, Just A Brother (Mikayla Weir, $31) came from near last to win the Parkes Cup in May this year in a four-way photo finish from Invertational, Sea Of Flames and Toretto.
Winning trainer Terry Croft has always been a staunch and popular supporter of Forbes race meetings and attends with stable clients the Cup Calcuttas held on Saturday night at Club Forbes.
The Forbes Cup is an eligibility race for the $3 million Big Dance at Randwick in November and high profile Sydney and provincial stables with nominations include Bjorn Baker, Clarry Conners and Kris Lees while Dan McCarthy from Victoria has three nominations.
Feature sprint is the 1200m Amazing Forbes Ben Hall Bullet won in 2023 by the Matthew Dale, Canberra-trained Blitzar (Louise Day, $4.60) which flew home from last to beat Kattegat (part-owned in Forbes) and Boom Boom Basil.
Later transferred to Dubbo trainer Brett Robb, Blitzar (Shannen Llewellyn) in May won the Satellite on Parkes Cup day and is scheduled to defend the Sprint title on Sunday at Forbes.
Final acceptors for Forbes close at 9am on Thursday (1st August).