One chance remains to qualify for the first edition of the Country Cups Challenge, following a further three qualifiers held at Charleville, Kumbia and Cairns on Melbourne Cup day.
All eyes will now be on the Roma Cup (Nov 17) before the $70,000 final to be run at Doomben on George Moore Stakes Day (Dec 1).
Despite winning the Cairns City Cup yesterday, the Stephen Potiris-trained Bold Kingston is ineligible to compete in the final under the conditions of No Metropolitan Wins in the Last Two Years, having won a $60,000 2YO race at Doomben in April 2017.
In another test of the series conditions, the judge couldn't split Darryl Ward-trained Land Office and Bevan Johnson's Still The Same in the Kumbia Cup.
2018 COUNTRY CUPS CHALLENGE PLACEGETTERS AND ELIGIBILITY.
Land Office would need to run in another non-TAB event to become eligible for the final.
The conditions read: "Should there be any dead-heats in the qualifers preference will be determined on the following basis:
- The horse with the highest RQ rating
- If two or more horses have the same official RQ rating they will be balloted by lot."
The Leslie Baker-trained Eschiele took out the Charleville Cup and has also qualified for the final.