This now time-honoured event has continued to attract huge interest in racing circles and officials are predicting another crowd in the order of five to six thousand to pack the Wine Country Race Club venue.

The meeting will carry prizemoney of $94,000 with the Jungle Juice Cup worth $25,000 and an rating 77 over 900 metres with $12,000.

Eighteen marquees have been booked while a large fleet of coaches will bring racegoers from the local area, Upper Hunter, Newcastle and the Central Coast.

Cessnock and Pakenham in Victoria are the only gallops meetings that day and the Cessnock meeting will be televised worldwide through Sky Racing.

Melbourne bookmaker Michael Eskander, one of the biggest around, will field at the meeting along with another Victorian visitor, Frank Huidson.

Leading jockey Robert Thompson will be riding at the meeting but at this stage it was too early to say what choice of mounts he will have.

Thompson has ridden eight cup winners, three for his good friend Jeremy Sylvester and two for his father Arthur.

Veteran trainer Albert Stapleford won last year’s cup with Cruzado, in a win that brought back many memories. The 79-year-old trainer had moved to the Central Coast 33 years ago after running stables at Cessnock on Allandale Road.

Greg Ryan rode the winner but had to survive a protest to claim the cup.

Stapleford’s win added another colourful page in the cup’s history, a history that goes back to the days of the Jungle Juice elixir brewed at the Wollombi Tavern by the late Mel Jurd.