Thoroughbred Park to offer last chance saloon for the Jericho Cup on Sunday

This is branded content.

It is last chance saloon at Thoroughbred Park on Sunday as the last race in the qualification series for the Jericho Cup takes place here in Canberra.

Sunday's eight-race meeting is marketed as the Road To The Jericho Race Day with the feature the Laurel Oak Bloodstock Benchmark 85 Handicap over the staying trip of 3400m, 200m more than this month's Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

Just six runners have been nominated for the race, but it has significance as the last chance for connections to secure a start in the $300,000 Haymes Paint Jericho Cup at Warrnambool on November 28.

The Jericho Cup is Australia's most unique flat race, taking place over a marathon-and-a-half distance of 4600m at The Bool. It was launched in 2018 to honour the Australian Light Horsemen and their World War One heroics.

The $18,000 first prize for Sunday's Benchmark 85 staying feature at Thoroughbred Park is not to be sniffed at, but perhaps more important is the qualifying points up for grabs in the hope of making the cut in the Jericho Cup, or the consolation race should numbers exceed the capacity field at Warrnambool.

Among the six nominations for the Thoroughbred Park qualifier is the Matthew Smith-trained True Marvel, who has won two of his last three starts and will carry top weight of 60g if lining up on Sunday.

The six-year-old gelding has won six times, including at Mornington and Moonee Valley this preparation prior to a disappointing sixth at Canterbury last start at the end of October.

Training partners Ciaron Maher & David Eustace, who won the 2019 Jericho Cup with Ablaze, have entered Chains Of Honour at Thoroughbred Park in the hope of securing a spot in the Warrnambool showpiece at the end of the month.

The five-year-old features among the racing tips for Sunday's race, on what will just be his third start for Maher & Eustace after transferring from Gerald Ryan in September.

Chains Of Honour has finished fourth and third in last two starts, but hasn't won since taking out the Group 3 Grand Prix Stakes at Eagle Farm in 2019.

The top two nominations should have too much class for the other four contenders, who include Robert Quinn's Marakopa, James Ponsonby's Will To Excel, the Amy McDonald-trained Master Poet and Martin Stein's Dismayed.

Four-time winner Marakopa was third in the Cessnock Cup at Newcastle when last in action and Master Poet has finished fourth in all four starts this preparation. Dismayed was fifth beyond Master Poet in the most recent of those.

Will To Excel has won his last two starts, firstly at Orange and then at Wagga in a heat of the stayers series at the end of October.

He comfortably had Master Poet and Dismayed behind that day but is likely to need significant more improvement to threaten the two top weights.