Three heat winners are drawn alongside one another for Friday's Bathurst Gold Cup finale

Michael Hardman's Zulu Warlord along with Mark Moroney's Fire On Ice and Fire Legend will all jump out from boxes three through five, and the start will as crucial as ever for the lucrative 520 metre event.

All three runners were impressive in their wins on debut and Lyne expects them all to improve further in their second look at the Bathurst track.

"The run to the first corner will be very interesting. The four dog [Fire On Ice] likes to go a little bit right early and Fire Legend goes left. Mark will be hoping for a little bit of luck with those two," he said.

"Zulu Warlord comes out as a really good beginner and holds a straight line so they won't be able to cross him into the first corner.

"Winlock On Top was second to Zulu Warlord in his heat and he's yet to miss a place in eight starts from the one box, so he's perfectly boxed if the three heat winners do take each other out going into the corner.

"The smokey, I think, is Prancing Diva. If there's a little bit of carnage early the six and seven aren't the best starters so she might be able to come across from the outside and put herself into a nice position."

Fire On Ice comes in as the fastest qualifier (29.61) with Fire Legend and Zulu Warlord (29.71) not far behind.

"It's a high quality race with some of the best dogs in New South Wales. We're very happy with the field," Lyne said.

"To have the three heat winners run the times they did at their first look at the track was amazing. Bathurst is a tricky track first up, so with them coming back it makes for an exciting race on Friday night."

The $10,600 Red Dog Maiden Final Maiden Series will also be held at the meeting.

The Gold Cup starts 9.24pm on Friday.