All roads point towards the 2023 Ladbrokes Inter Dominion Championship in Queensland, with more than 170 hopefuls putting their best foot forward.
A mammoth 107 nominations spanning Australasia have been received for the Inter Dominion Pacing Championship, headlined by Queensland champion and six-time Group 1 winner Leap To Fame.
Reigning champion I Cast No Shadow is amongst nominations to defend his crown, alongside Blacks A Fake winner Swayzee, 2022 New Zealand Cup winner Copy That and recent the inaugural The Eureka winner, Encipher.
Meanwhile, there were 70 nominations received for the Inter Dominion Trotting Championship, including 2022 winner Just Believe, New Zealand natives like Majestic Man and recent Rowe Cup winner Love N The Port, as well as star mare and recent Golden Ticket recipient Queen Elida and Chris Lang’s Ollivici.
Conditions currently allow for a 24-horse trotters series, however RQ will consider extending this to a 36-horse series during the acceptance process.
With the quantity of nominations exceeding expectations, the deadline for the release of the first round of rankings has been pushed back to Friday, September 29.
First acceptances will take place on October 23.
The eyes of the nation will be on the 2023 Inter Dominion – held in Queensland for the first time since 2009 – commencing at Albion Park on Friday, December 1, 2023, and run exclusively at The Creek.
The second and third rounds of qualifiers will follow on December 5 and December 9 respectively, culminating with both pacing and trotting finals on Saturday, December 16 – worth $500,000 and $250,000 respectively.
Following its successful introduction in 2022, the winners of both the Group 2 Queensland Cup and Group 2 Queensland Trotters Sprint on November 11 will receive a golden ticket for this year’s Inter Dominion.
Click here to see the full list of nominations.