THE IN-FORM BRYAN DAIS STABLE IS NOW TARGETING A MURWILLUMBAH CUP WIN WITH GOLDEN CROSS

By Graham Potter | Thursday, August 20, 2026

Trainer Bryan Dais is having the time of his life at present … and he is looking to extend his stable’s enormous run of form into another week when he sends Golden Cross out to contest the $85 000 Murwillumbah Cup on Friday … a race which comes with a ‘Big Dance Eligibility’ for the first two runners across the line. (The Big Dance is a $3 million race which will contested at Royal Randwick on Melbourne Cup Day).

Golden Cross, a five-year-old son of Artie Schiller, has won three of his last four starts … over 1200m, 1400m and 1600m when obviously enjoying the measured step up in distance … with the last two victories coming in succession in town at Eagle Farm at odds of $16 and $7.50.

That puts Golden Cross on a hat trick here, now tackling the 1550m trip, and he will do so with 2kg claiming apprentice Archie McColm in the saddle with McColm replacing Montana Philpot who partnered Golden Cross to victory in those last two starts (on July 26 and August 8).

Further ramming home the point of just how well the Dais yard is performing is the race-to-race double which the stable landed at Doomben last Saturday when both Cool Music and In Society saluted at the juicy odds of $10 and $31 respectively. Both of these winners were ridden by Philpot.

That set of results means that Dais has saddled four winners from his last six runners … and just take another look at the starting prices of those winners to see what great value the stable has represented in recent times.

There is a bit more respect for the Dais trained runner in the betting this time around with Golden Cross currently being marked up as the second favourite at $6.50 … but that still places him some way off the strong $2.40 race favourite, the Ciaron Maher trained Rock Empire

Rock Empire is a last start winner, having saluted over 1600m at Randwick when last in action.

Golden Cross has twelve other rivals to overcome if he is to complete the hat trick … notable the threat posed by the powerful stables of Tony Gollan and Kris Lees, who both have two runners in the race.

Gollan saddles Tenzing and Castillian. Tenzing is second-up (he has won three and been placed three times in seven starts when racing second-up) while Castillian goes up in distance as he searches for his best form.

Lees saddles Loch Eagle, who won the Coffs Cup last time out, and Pier Pressure, who is seldom far away but who has been struggling to find that winning touch.