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Chris Waller and Gai Waterhouse will mount strong bids to increase their splendid winning records in the Wyong Gold Cup on Friday.

Waller and Waterhouse have dominated Wyong Cup results for more than a decade, winning the race seven times between them.

Waterhouse has three Wyong Cups to her credit with Sea Captain (1995), Bianca (2008) and Julienas (2012), a trio that saw her equal the Wyong Cup training record with former Wyong trainer Neville McBurney.

However they have since been overtaken by Waller, who has won four of the last five Wyong Cups with Hawk Island (2010), The Verminator (2011), Wazn (2013) and Multilateral (2014).

Waller had a choice of runners for this year’s $150,000 Carlton Mid Wyong Gold Cup, to be run over the reduced distance of 2080 (normally 2100m) due to track maintenance work, and has surprised by nominating only Beyond Thankful.

Beyond Thankful, after winning successive races at Canterbury and Rosehill, is set for a quick back after finishing fourth in last Saturday’s Premier’s Cup (1800m) at Rosehill.

He will be opposed by two Waterhouse-trained stayers with the Randwick trainer nominating imports Cafe Society and The Offer.

Sydney Cup winner The Offer will continue his build up to the major spring races after a bold second-up win in the Rowley Mile (1600m) at Hawkesbury on August 20.

The Rowley Mile was The Offer’s first start since June 20 and showed the import he was regaining the form that saw him win the Listed Ballarat Cup, G3 Manion Cup, G2 Chairman’s Handicap and G1 Sydney Cup in the 2013/14 season.

Cafe Society was purchased by Waterhouse for a syndicate of clients in the UK last year after recording three wins and six placings in his first 12 starts.

He has raced only once in Australia, finishing eighth over 1500m at Rosehill in June but has trialled several times and will resume off the back of a Randwick trial win over 1250m on August 21.

Trainer John O’Shea will aim to win the race for Godolphin with the impressive import Havana Cooler following his eye catching first-up sixth over 1800m at Rosehill on August 15.

Orbec, another import trained by John Thompson, is also set for the Wyong Cup after finishing an excellent second in the same Rosehill race as Havana Cooler.

Newcastle trainer Kris Lees holds a big hand in the Wyong Cup with four entries. He favours running Artibai and Slow Pace ahead of his other nominations Oriental Lady and Slivovitz.

$150,000 WYONG GOLD CUP ENTRIES
2080M; Listed Race; Run Friday
1 312153x732 ARTIBAI (Kris Lees)
2 21x1882114 BEYOND THANKFUL (Chris Waller)
3 9656117381 BONUS SPIN  (Jeff Englebrecht)
4 2x61337x8x CAFE SOCIETY (Gai Waterhouse)
5 0x73775225 CASINO DANCER  (Mike Van Gestel)
6 x00755x996 DISCLAIMER (Peter & Paul Snowden)
7 x4436x7015 GET ON THE GRANGE  (Neil Godbolt)
8 26x0547871 GHOST PROTOCOL (Paul Perry)
9 133x362Lx6 HAVANA COOLER (John O'Shea)
10 0x06337362 JUST AS COSMIC  (Jason Coyle)
11 124211x7x2 ORBEC (John P Thompson)
12 x9235748x7 ORIENTAL LADY (Kris Lees)
13 7x4154x733 ORION LOVE (Louis Baudron)
14 4324x45543 SLIVOVITZ  (Kris Lees)
15 40x09792x0 SLOW PACE (Kris Lees)
16 1x5960x8x1 THE OFFER (Gai Waterhouse)
17 318x049429 ZAYAM (Matthew Smith)