Local skippers Blythe Walker and Lance Fraser made promising starts to the $100,000 Argo Group Gold Cup in Hamilton Harbour yesterday.Both men ended the day with identical 3-1 records from their opening four flights in their respective groups to put themselves in early contention for a place in the quarter-finals of the Alpari Match Racing Tour event.Walker is competing in Group One while Fraser, the youngest skipper in the field, has been pitted in Group Two.After a delayed start to racing due to lack of wind, Walker and his Renaissance Re team-mates (Adam Barboza, Somers Kempe and Phil Worboys) were forced on the back foot after losing their opening flight against Canada’s Taylor Canfield. However, the local team came roaring back in emphatic fashion with successive wins against Stratis Andreadis (Greece), Peter Wickwire (Canada) and William Tiller (New Zealand) who finished runner-up at last week’s Match Race France.“It was a decent start, it was a better start than we had last year,” said Walker. “We had clean starts except for one race and the guys did a great job getting us to the weather leg. We were really good sailing upwind and picking the shifts.“It was tricky out there, the wind was very shifty and it was very intense and close racing.”Walker’s three wins came against skippers currently ranked among the top 50 match racers in the ISAF rankings.His only blemish was in the opening flight when he paid a heavy price for sailing into a hole on the second beat to windward.“We picked the wrong side of the course and he (Canfield) passed us going upwind,” Walker said. “We went towards Salt Kettle and he (Canfield) went towards Two Rock Passage and the breeze filled in on his side of the course better and he managed to pass us upwind. We almost caught him downwind so it was a close finish.”Canfield and Staffan Lindberg (Finland) topped Group One at the end of yesterday’s racing with perfect 3-0 records while reigning Tour champion and points leader Ian Williams finished with a 3-1 record.Like Walker, who finished third in the 2006 Gold Cup, 19-year-old skipper Fraser and his Team Digicel Match Racing team-mates (Jesse Kirkland and Jordan and Jason Saints) also coped well in yesterday’s light and shifty breezes with a performance belying their tender years.Fraser got the day off to a flyer with successive wins against Eric Monnin (Switzerland), Jurjen Feitsma (Netherlands) and Sergy Musikkin (Russia) before losing to two-time Gold Cup runner-up Johnie Berntsson (Sweden) in his final flight of the day.Despite ending the day on a losing note, Fraser and his team-mates still had much to be pleased about.“We had some had some good conversations about what the course was doing before the start and made a plan and just stuck to it,” Fraser said. “We won the pre-starts and did okay sailing around the course.“It was good fun and we are happy with how it went. We just have to go back out there and do it again tomorrow (today).”Fraser’s three wins also came against skippers ranked among the top 50 match racers in the ISAF rankings.Things appeared promising for the teenage skipper in his flight with Berntsson after getting a penalty on his senior rival during the pre-start. But the Swede completed his penalty turn after forcing Fraser away from the layline at the first weather mark and went on to take the win.“We basically sailed the same speed in different directions the whole way around the course,” Fraser said. “But he (Berntsson) just had the same piece (breeze) he had at the start at the windward mark on us and it happened on both legs.”Berntsson topped Group Two after day one with a perfect 3-0 record while compatriot Bjorn Hansen finished 3-1.Racing continues today in Hamilton Harbour.