Nick Olive is leaning towards sending Maid Of Ore to the Canberra Cup as trainers eagerly await the acceptances for Randwick Guineas Raceday.
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The local trainer has nominated the six-year-old mare for both the $250,000 Canberra Cup (2000 metres) and Saturday's Group 3 mile at Royal Randwick, with a decision to be made in the coming days.
Acceptances for the Harbour City races must be declared by Wednesday morning, then fields will be released shortly afterwards. Acceptances for the Canberra Racing Carnival will take place the following day.
Eleven horses in the listed Canberra Cup have been dual nominated for the Randwick City Stakes, while three others are down for the $160,000 mile.
The latter includes Olive's Maid Of Ore, who finished third in last year's Canberra Cup behind winner Mugatoo.
"I'd love to improve on that for sure," Olive said.
"She ran a really good race in the Canberra Mile, I'm looking for her to improve into the Canberra Cup.
"I think she's going really well, obviously she needs to draw a good barrier and so forth. I think she'll definitely be a chance."
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Canberra Racing is expecting a full field for that feature, with chief executive Andrew Clark saying the club is happy with "the quantity and quality of nominations received for both Canberra Cup Day and Black Opal Stakes Day."
Gai Waterhouse-trained Entente and Canberra Mile winner Outback Diva lead the betting odds for the Canberra Cup, albeit have also been nominated in Sydney races.
In the $250,000 Black Opal Stakes, 15 of the 27 horses have been dual nominated for either the Todman and Riesling Stakes.
Matthew Dale's Pretty Woman, which is also down for Riesling Stakes, is the best chance for a local horse to win the Black Opal since 2011 - having won her last two races in Canberra.
"It will certainly be great to see Pretty Woman achieve that on Sunday," Clark said.
"It's very exciting for the club, for Matthew, and for everyone associated with Pretty Woman."