It is Team McCarthy star Bling It On.

Trained by Belinda McCarthy and driven by her husband Luke McCarthy, a former Bathurst resident, Bling It On has picked up 10 Group wins in his 54 start career.

The most recent of those came in October’s Group 1 Gold Coast Cup, while in another indication of the five-year-old’s quality, his most recent start saw him clock a scorching 1:50.8 mile rate in winning the Group 3 Keving Newman Cup at Menangle.

In a further boost for the American Ideal x Alldatglittersisgold five-year-old, he has drawn barrier 10 for the Bathurst feature and the two emergencies have drawn the front row.

“We have come up with a very strong race, obviously Luke McCarthy drew well with Bling It On. He’s really flying at the moment and is obviously the main chance,” Dwyer said.

“I think there will be a lot of moves in the race and I think there are a couple there capable of matching him if the race is run to suit them, but he’s certainly got the gun draw.”

With the Shirley Turnbull Memorial run to honour the matriarch of the famed The Lagoon family and the 2,260 metre contest holding Group 2 status, it attracted strong interest from both local stables and those from across New South Wales.

Given those trainers wishing to have their runners considered for the pair of C4 or better races on the December 26 program also being required to nominate for the memorial, the field is a quality one.

“The nominations were pretty strong this year, I think there was 25 nominations,” Dwyer said.

“It has well and truly jumped out of the ground this year.

“There are probably not as many local runners as normal, but that speaks to the strength of the field.”

Steve Turnbull, whose mother was Shirley Turnbull, has two runners in the field. Ardle McArdle will be driven by his son Nathan from barrier one. Peter Trevor-Jones’ Beetson will start alongside him in barrier two, while the other Bathurst chance is Ashlee Grives’ Lochinver, who drew the 11 gate.

That trio all have strong records on the metropolitan level, but the biggest potential challenger to Bling It On is likely to be a Victorian visitor.

Keayang Steamer will go from the outside of the second row, but given his last start saw him take out the $50,000 Group 2 Treuer Memorial at Bankstown, he is in good form.

Trained at Terang by Margaret Lee and driven by Glen Craven, Keayang Steamer’s record this season reads three wins from four starts.

“I am not sure if it is coincidence or not, but we did fax him down the program for the Shirley Turnbull meeting after he won the Treuer to see if it was any interest to him,” Dwyer said. “I not sure if he had already made his mind up by then or not.”

Saturday night’s meeting at the Bathurst Paceway will get underway at 6.20pm, with the memorial to get the green light at 9.15pm.