![Last year's Deepwater Cup winner One of the Kind with Courtney Bellamy aboard. Picture by Bradley Photographers. Last year's Deepwater Cup winner One of the Kind with Courtney Bellamy aboard. Picture by Bradley Photographers.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/T7RGn6Wqupu9DPpBgesVjF/8ef13da3-f21a-48eb-8d07-67ce20be1967.JPG/r0_0_5472_3198_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Deepwater racetrack has been given Racing NSW's tick of approval before Saturday's annual Cup meet.
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Racing NSW steward Kyle Blanch travelled to the track on Wednesday morning to inspect the surface and ensure it would be safe for horses and jockeys after a recent bout of dry weather.
Deepwater Jockey Club president Doug Stevenson said it's a good 3 and it will soften up even further if the predicted rain comes through.
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"No problem at all, very happy with how things are looking," he said.
"He had a look at all our facilities here, we have done a fair bit of work on a few things which he was very pleased about.
"It is a good 3 and he is going to leave it at a good 3.
"They're predicting up to 25mm of rain on Thursday and that will top it off nicely and we will adjust that depending how much rain we get."
The 1400m Deepwater Cup itself is worth $17,000 and 11 trainers have put horses forward for the 10-horse field.
Among those is Wayne Oakenfull has three surrounding towns' Cup winners.
He has 2022 Glen Innes Cup winner Amazingly, 2023 Inverell Cup winner Zaiden and 2023 Glen Innes Cup winner Aytobe in the mix.
Stirling Osland's last-start winner Fight On Shades has also been put forward for the Cup.
When nominations were initially published on Tuesday, there were 51 horses put forward. Now there are 62 horses nominated for the six races on offer.
"Depending on what happens over the next couple of days, we will have three full fields at this stage with noms," Stevenson said.
"That might change depending on acceptances tomorrow [Thursday]."
Apprentice jockey Courtney Bellamy took out three races at last year's event and she will return again this year with an aim to continue her form.
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