The four-year-old gelding has drawn barrier five in the small, but quality seven-horse field and sits at the top of the sportsbet.com.au market order at $2.40.

Kiwia, who will be ridden by eight-time Group 1 winning jockey Damian Lane, shot to prominence with his win in the $150,000 Group 3 Coongy Cup at Caulfield on September 21 and was set for this race months ago.

The $300,000 feature race has attracted a modest, but high-quality field of seven stayers, including two who remain in contention for a start in next week’s $6 million Melbourne Cup.

They include the Godolphin runner Qewy, who is second favourite at $2.80, and the Team Williams horse Foundry ($15).

Qewy was fourth in last year’s Melbourne Cup behind Almandin and is a stable mate to 2017 Bendigo Cup winner Francis Of Assisi.

His trainer Charlie Appleby has set the now eight-year-old gelding for another tilt at the 3200m Melbourne Cup, but has declared he would only run the horse on the back of a stellar performance at Bendigo.

The gelding is currently 22nd in the Cup ballot after Tuesday’s second acceptances.

The Bendigo Cup will be the international galloper’s first start this spring, after Appleby bypassed last week’s Geelong Cup and last Saturday’s Moonee Valley.

Qewy won the Geelong Cup last year before his excellent fourth placing at Flemington.

Foundry, which won the Group 1 Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick two starts ago before he was unplaced in the Herbert Power Handicap (2400m) at Caulfield, is 29th in the order.

Kiwia, a winner of six of 10 career starts, including the $50,000 Gold Nugget (1600m) at Ballarat in September, is the latest in a long line of Cup starters for Bendigo-born businessman Gerry Ryan.

Weir and Ryan last teamed to win the Bendigo Cup in 2012 with Puissance De Lune and will be confident with of landing another with the lightly-raced gekding.

Six-time Group 1 winning trainer Tony McEvoy has entered Big Memory ($10), who is coming off a fourth placing in a keenly contested Moe Cup on October 19.

The outsider of the field is Skulduggery, from the Cranbourne stable of Shawn Mathrick, at $91.

This year’s field of seven is three fewer than last year’s when the Godolphin galloper Francis Of Assisi blitzed his eight rivals to win by three lengths over the Danny O’Brien-trained Second Bullet.

The 2400m Cup will be the eighth of 10 races run on Wednesday and is timed for 4pm.

Full Bendigo Cup market: Kiwia $2.40; Qewy $2.80; Foundry $5; Big Memory $9.50; Meet And Greet $14; Khartoum $46; Skulduggery $81.