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By Chris Scholtz

The powerful Lindsay Park stable is set to make a strong bid for a third win in Friday’s $180,000 Albury Gold Cup.

Co-trainers David Hayes, Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes have nominated three horses for Friday’s Listed Race over 2000m including the evergreen past winner Extra Zero. Extra Zero, now a tireless 10-year-old, gave Lindsay Park its second Albury Cup win in 2012 a year after he had finished second to Paddy O’Reilly in 2011.

Growl was the first Lindsay Park-trained Albury Cup winner in 2010 when David Hayes was heading the stable before his trainer partnership started with his nephew Tom Dabernig in 2014. David Hayes’ son Ben made it a three-way partnership last year.

The other Lindsay Park entries for the Commercial Club Albury Gold Cup are the imported Bold Sniper, owned by Queen Elizabeth, and Snitzelwood but the veteran Extra Zero will be the popular runner should he line up for his fourth Albury Cup start on Friday, having finished 11th in his third attempt in 2014.

Extra Zero is edging closer to a century of race starts, having raced for the 96th time in his career in the Wangaratta Cup (200m) on March 8 where he finished a gallant second to the classy Our Century for his third placing in four starts this year.

Bold Sniper, who landed in Australia from the UK in 2015, finished seventh in last year’s Albury Cup when he was attempting to win the race first-up from a spell. It took Bold Sniper until May of last year to win his first race in Australia at Sandown over 2400m and he followed up with another victory over 2040m at Moonee Valley in August.

He has had a different preparation this year, having resumed with a game third behind Our Century and Extra Zero in the Wangarrata Cup.

Snitzelwood, the winner of eight of his 27 starts, finished fourth in the Wangaratta Cup at just his second starts since winning successive races at Geelong and Pakenham in September.

A big list of leading trainers have nominated horses for the Albury Gold Cup including Lee and Anthony Freedman (Cool Chap), Tony McEvoy (Kourkam), Darren Weir (Goldstream), Gerald Ryan (Red Excitement), Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott (Bonfire), Bjorn Baker (Captain Duffy), Gary Moore (Classic Uniform), David Brideoake (Self Sense), Greg Hickman (Citations), Shawn Mathrick (Adirondack), Jason Coyle (More Energy), Cindy Alderson (O’Lonera), Mick Cerchi (Sadaqa) and Archie Alexander (Survived). Kourkam beat Self Sense in the 2015 Albury Cup.

View the nominations and weights with full form & race replays for Albury here