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By Graeme White

Monday racing at the Sapphire Coast will be an entrée to what lies ahead late next month with many horses working their way towards the two-day carnival.

The seven-race program will attract a large holiday crowd with Sapphire Coast Turf Club to offer any more incentives for its carnival on Saturday January 29 and Sunday January 30.

There will be $528,000 prizemoney on offer with the feature race being the $80,000 Bega Cup over 1600 metres.

The business community of Tathra will sponsor races on Monday where the connections of some horses will be planning ahead for not only races at the carnival, but also possibly the Newhaven Park Country Championships.

One horse who could come into contention after Monday is the lightly raced and promising Hardy who resumes sin the Tathra Beach Country Club Class 2 (1212m).

Hardy won on debut at Wagga and the resume with consecutive placings at Moruya, Wagga and Goulburn – the latest in September.

The gelding had a brief break rom racing and showed he was ready to go first-up with a solid third in a Goulburn trial behind subsequent Wagga winner Platara.

Nicholas, which ran second in the same trial, will also resume on Monday in the Tathra Beach Bowlo Tathra Cup (1612m).

It won’t be an easy task for Hardy as he faces four last start winners including Kirkton, Crackalacka, Sucrose and Benyatta.

Kirkton won his final two starts prior to a spell and showed he was ready to perform first-up with a trial victory at Canberra.

Crackalacka has only raced once for current trainer Teresa Bateup and was impressive coming from the rear of the field to win at the Sapphire Coast.

Sucrose won her latest start at Moruya in January of this year, while Benyatta also scored at her first start for current trainer Natalie Jarvis at the Sapphire Coast on November 29.