THIS year's Bendigo Cup day is shaping as a busy one for hometown trainer Shane Fliedner.
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The multiple Group and Listed race-winning trainer will be the best represented of the home-track brigade with three runners, all of them early on the 10-race program.
Fliedner will not have to wait long for a slice of the cup day action, with Clever Spark engaged in the day's first race.
His third and final runner will be the first starter Jive Dancin' in a 1400m maiden, with the three-year-old gelding Hi Stranger to face the starter in a 1100m maiden in race two.
Fliedner has experienced a good degree of success on Bendigo Cup day in the past, most recently in 2017 with Flying Spark in a benchmark 70 fillies and mares event.
In 2013, he ended cup day with a double to Gabble and He's Commanding and has on a couple of occasions finished among the placings in the feature event.
Fliedner, who saddled up St Edward's Crown in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas earlier this month, nominated the four-year-old mare Clever Spark as arguably his best chance on Wednesday.
"She's coming off a maiden win, (but) going up sharply in class," he said.
"It's only a small field, but if she could finish in the first three or four that would keep me happy.
"It's a tough race, but she's a decent place chance.
"Hi Stranger raced as a two-year-old late last season and he's first-up in a race that's probably a bit short for him, but he will be competitive."
Jive Dancin' is one of four gallopers making their race debut in the 1400m maiden plate, with fellow first-starter Kinane, from the Michael Kent stable, the early race favourite.
Fliedner said said he expected the three-year-old to be better over further distances.
"He's bred to run 2000m, so if he could finish among the first five we'd be pretty happy," he said.
Fliedner, who has twice finished second in the Bendigo Cup with Hoodlum in 2007 and Jakodae in 2004, insisted it was every trainer's dream to get a win on their hometown cup day, and acknowledged it would be an exciting day for the two Bendigo trainers - Josh Julius and Nick Smart - with runners involved in this year's $400,000 feature event.
"I'm sure their horses will get the distance (2400m), it's whether they get it fast enough, he said.
"But it's great for them to have a runner in it," he said.
Meanwhile, excitement surrounds the debut of one of Hi Stranger's rivals in the 1100m maiden, the Arthur Pace-trained Hay Cliffy.
The four-year-old gelding will be ridden by champion jockey Damien Oliver and is the early favourite in betting at $2.70.
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