BY TOM BARBER - Daily Liberal - 5 June 2023

This week's wet weather won't stop the Dubbo Turf Club from preparing for one of their biggest meetings of the year.

The club will host the Silver Goblet later this week along with two Winter Country Classic qualifiers on Friday, just a day after Dubbo is forecast to be hit with showers.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting that Dubbo is a 95 per chance of receiving anywhere from four to 15mm of rain on Thursday.

But the rain won't impact the track a great deal Dubbo Turf Club's Sam Fitzgerald says.

"We've only had it on our mind that we would receive some amount of rain this week, so we've structured our track maintenance program to reflect that," he said.

"Last week's meeting we ended up on a Good 3 which is pretty rare for this time of year but certainly we have no concerns with the track.

"We've established over the last few years that we have an amazing ability to recover and drain."

Nominations for the meeting were revealed on Monday morning but two of the races have been given extra time to welcome more runners.

Both the Showcase Silver Goblet 2YO Handicap (1100m) and Showcase Open Handicap (1000m) will allow nominations until Tuesday morning, with the aim to increase the size of the field.

Brett Robb's A Magic Zariz and Dalavin have both been nominated but Fitzgerald isn't too concerned about the field sizes.

"They are obviously two of the more challenging races to attract horses for," he said.

"In the open handicap, you are looking at high-level horses who have won plenty of races.

"It's generally reflective of the nominations, we get a smaller field but a high-quality one."

Strangely, Damien Lane's Bare To Witness, winner of the Silver Goblet preview last month has not been nominated for Friday's feature.

Instead, Annabel Neasham and Kris Lees are two of the heavyweight stables to have nominated runners.

Lees' LA Boqueria will come into the meeting with two wins from three career starts while Hellfire Express has won its only start for Neasham, the pair make up two of the 12 nominations as of Monday afternoon.

"It's similar with the two-year-old race, while it has been extended we are pretty happy with the 12 nominations that have come in," Fitzgerald said.

"That would indicate that we are going to have a full field coming acceptance time on Wednesday."

Having hosted their June Sponsors' Day last Friday, the club is expecting another strong crowd for an event Fitzgerald admitted continues to improve.

"The Silver Goblet Showcase meeting is one that is gaining momentum every year," he said.

"Over the last few years, the actual feature race itself has produced a number of nice horses moving forward.

"For us as a club, it's starting to become a really important feature race meeting for us."

Acceptances for Friday's race meeting will be released on Wednesday.