The popular Dubbo Carnival Of Cups harness racing meeting is less than two weeks away and there was plenty of interest at Forbes on Sunday with a heat of the Club Dubbo Dooza Speed Gig Series conducted. The final will be run at Dubbo’s feature meeting on May 17. This race is restricted to horses with four wins or less and must be trained and driven by amateur participants. The final carries prize money of $10200 plus a Dooza Speed Gig valued at $8000 will also go to the winning connections.
The major sponsor of the event is Club Dubbo formally known as the West Dubbo Bowling Club. The club have been a major supporter of the Dubbo Harness Racing Club for a number of years. It was fitting that the first heat run at Forbes on Sunday was taken out by Dubbo trainer/driver Gary Edwards. The Dubbo track curator was one of the instigators of this unique series and there will be further heats run at Bathurst on May 6th, Tamworth May 7th, Parkes May 9th with the final heat at Dubbo on May 13th.
All heats carry minimum prize money of $5100 with the first two horses past the post in each qualifying for the final. The inaugural series winner Cankickatarget has gone onto win more than $50,000 for trainer Brett Hutchings.
The main race of the carnival is the Red Ochre Mares Classic. Heats worth $5100 will be conducted at the club’s meeting on May 13th with the Gr. 3 final worth $30000 run four days later. Funding for this time honoured mares classic comes from Dubbo’s stallion service auction with all money raised going into prize money. The Dubbo club is extremely grateful to Yirribee, Alabar, Nevele R, Woodlands and Goodtime Lodge Studs.
The other feature event will be the $12,240 Peter Lew Memorial for three year olds. The race is named after one of Dubbo’s most respected trainers and made possible by the generous donations of his family. Dubbo has currently three talented pacers that could start in the prestigious event headed up by Mister Jogalong prepared by Mick Lew. The Peter Gavin trained The Only Child and recent Tamworth Derby winner Remember Kaiser from the Brett Pay stable will be the other local representatives.
The remainder of the program will carry minimum prize money of $8000 per race making this year’s meeting one of the richest in country NSW.
– HRNSW Media