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Murwillumbah Cup-winning Anne Bonny is one 24 nominations for next Thursday’s $65,000 Slipway Hotel Ballina Showcase Cup (1600m). The Owen Glue-trained mare was a brilliant winner of last Friday’s 1530m Murwillumbah Cup when the Lismore-trained daughter of Stratum set a race record on her way to a third successive win for her local stable.

The five-year-old mare annexed her sixth race win in 21 starts but will find an even stronger field on Thursday with the likes of Cauthen’s Power (Chris Munce), Taree Cup Prelude winner Glitra (John Sprague), Queensland raiders Cashing Up (Barry Lockwood), Liberty Island (Bruce Hill), Lordag (Robert Heathcote) and even a Sydney runner Little Miss Brown (Joe Pride).

The latter, like Anne Bonny, is a five-year-old mare who has won three of her 18 starts for almost $90,000 in prizemoney. She was a winner at Wyong three starts back over 1600m before a close second at Warwick Farm and then a last start 11th of 11 at the Farm as well.

Ballina Jockey Club's GM, Matt Bertram, was delighted with the quality and quantity of nominations for the eight Cup-day races. He’s confident it will be a massive day given fine forecasts for next week with 165 horses nominated.

“Great to see Joe is sending up Little Miss Brown for the Cup,” he said. “She’ll be in the mix and has the profile to win a race like this. She is progressive and will be hard to beat but horses on the limit have good records in the Cup.”

He said it will be an interesting race with the likes of Cauthen’s Power, Anne Bonny and the Leo Clapham-trained Cilla as well. "Cilla is a good horse, was trained by John Sargeant in Sydney before coming up to Leo,” Bertram said. “It will race well in this and probably got to the Lismore Cup as well. But the Ballina Cup is shaping up well.”

There are four last start winners in the 24-strong Cup nomination list with Anne Bonny joined by Kincaple Chief (John Smerdon), Real Mystique (Ben Currie) and Steal A Diamond (Fred Adams). Kincaple Chief won at Lismore over 1516m last time out while fellow Gold Coaster Steal A Diamond won a Sunshine coast 1600m.

Real Mystique has won three of her last four for and was successful at Toowoomba over 1850m for Toowoomba-based Ben Currie. Cup celebrations start in earnest next Wednesday night when Cup sponsors, the Slipway Hotel, host the Cup Calcutta. That begins around 6pm.

View the nominations with full form & race replays for Ballina's Country Showcase meeting here