entered the fray on day three of the Omega Gold Cup regatta yesterday, winning the Bermuda Commercial Bank Challenge.

And the skipper ranked number two in the world was hoping that this was not a bad omen, noting how customarily the winner of the challenge was not nearly so successful when the real competition got underway.

In what could well be a preview of the Omega final, Davis was able to get the better of fellow Aussie Peter Gilmour in a single race final, this after each had topped their respective groups following three flight mini-series.

However, Davis was well aware that his result meant little in terms of what lay in store for the rest of the week, starting today with the first championship round which involves a best-of-five series pitting seeds against unseeded qualifiers.

"At the end of the day I'd like to say something could be made of it, but not really,'' said Davis, twice runner-up in the Omega Gold Cup, including last year when he was beaten by Kiwi Russell Coutts. "It was a practice day, so he's experimenting a little bit and we're experimenting a little bit and we know although there's a thousand dollars on the race -- and I'm sure he didn't want to lose it -- I can't read any more into it.'' Davis was also quick to point out that the $30,000 winner's cheque associated with winning the Gold Cup was a lot more appealing, adding "thirty-thousand sounds a whole lot better than a thousand I reckon''.

He acknowledged the great difficulty in adjusting to the less responsive and cumbersome International One Design (IOD) craft.

"These boats are the hardest boats for us to sail, because they're so different from all the other boats we sail in the match racing circuit,'' added Davis, who will have Bermuda's Adam Barboza as his opponent today.

"It takes us days and days to get used to sailing in them. So in combination with this being a knock-out series, if we don't have a good day tomorrow we're on an airplane home, it's all over...it's scary.'' Reigning world number one match racer Gilmour, meanwhile, echoed Davis' sentiments indicating that the real deal commences today.

Gilmour takes on what he hopes will be just an initial offering in David Bedford of Great Britain, the number four qualifier from group one.

Still, the lanky Australian, a semi-finalist last year, was not taking his opponent lightly, especially with the Brit having had much more practice time in the IOD boats coming through the qualifying round.

"We made a lot of mistakes today that I'd like to think we wouldn't make towards the end of the week,'' said Gilmour, producer of perhaps the day's most spectacular set of manoeuvres, erasing two penalties in less than a leg to beat Chris Law during the second flight.

"Always, coming from a regatta and sailing a new boat is very different, but the hardest time for us is the racing we'll do tomorrow against the guys who have already done some racing.

"It's not until we get into a day three, day four do we start to fit our straps and everyone's pretty much on an equal footing.'' Remaining match-ups today have local favourite Peter Bromby tackling Germany's Markus Wieser, Law pitted against Andy Beadsworth, Magnus Holmberg facing Stuart Childerley, Ed Baird taking on the dangerous Chris Dickson, Roy Heiner matched with Neville Wittey and 1991 champion Eddie Warden-Owen versus top qualifier John Cutler.