Champion jumper Zed Em was handicapped to carry 69.5kgs when the weights were announced for the time-honoured race on Friday. The Patrick Payne-trained Zed Em will have to set a modern-weight carrying record to win Australia’s most famous jumping race.

Al Garhood carried 69kgs to win the race in 2011 while Planet Hollywood was successful in 1999 carrying 68.5kgs. Zed Em’s stablemate No Song No Supper, who won the 5500-metre race in 2016, has been allocated 66.5kgs, while Gold Medals heads the weights for the south-west runners with 65.5kgs for Symon Wilde.

Fellow Warrnambool trainer Patrick Ryan accepted with I’ll’ava’alf and John Monash. They were handicapped on 65kgs and 64kg respectively. Orford jumper Mannertone will carry 64kgs – the minimum weight in the jumps feature.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s leading trainer Darren Weir has nominated five horses for the $200,000 Warrnambool Cup, the other feature on Thursday’s 10-race program.

Weir, who has won the cup a record five times, put entries in for the 2016 Warrnambool Cup winner Master Of Arts, the last-start Flemington winner Gallic Chieftain and the unlucky last-start runners Kiwia and Yogi. 

His other nomination was Chequered Flag. Master Of Arts heads the weights with 60kgs while Gallic Chieftain has 59.5kgs, Kiwia 58.5kgs and Yogi 54kgs.