Dubbo Harness Racing Club’s Carnival Of Cups Series gets underway at Wednesday night's harness racing meeting with an eight race program.
The meeting features two heats of the $30000 Gr. 3 Red Ochre Mare Classic.
Once again the race has attracted the attention of some of the state’s biggest stables.
Shane Tritton will attempt to make it back to back victories in the feature and looks to have a couple of handy mares in Ohoka Royal and Real Star with both expected to figure prominently.
The leading stables of Steve Turnbull, Nathan Hurst, Bernie Hewitt and Ashley Siejka are all represented in the heats as well.
An interesting runner in the second heat is My Whisky Lullaby.
The Sydney trained mare will be driven by talented reinsman Josh Willick and has already won four races.
The other feature race on the program is the fifth heat of the Club Dubbo Dooza Golden Gig.
Six local trained horses are engaged and hope to qualify for the rich final being run on Sunday May 17.
Only two spots remain in the final after recent heats were run at Forbes, Bathurst, Tamworth and Parkes.
Two Dubbo trained horses have already qualified with five time local premiership winning trainer Gary Edwards and James Sutton set to be represented in the final.
Another interesting race on the program is the Maiden Pace.
This race, for horses that have not won at all at a licenced meeting is sponsored by Ron Hoy.
The 94 year old veteran, who seldom misses a meeting, was Dubbo’s leading trainer back in the 1970’s and 80’s preparing more than 150 winners.
His sons Garth and Lester remain the only local drivers to win more than 100 races on the Dubbo circuit.
Harness racing in Dubbo has long been known as a family sport.
Names like Lew, Hoy, Pay, Lesslie, McKinnon & Edwards have become very familiar and successful names in the industry.
When you add to those more recent families participating with a deal of success like Reynolds, Carroll and Sutton harness racing in Dubbo will continue to thrive.
– HRNSW Media