Spare Me Days! Cups bonuses go to Goulburn

The 2015/16 Carnival Of Cups bonuses were finalised and presented on Saturday night at Tabcorp Park Menangle. Spare Me Days was declared the leading horse in the six feature races run during the Carnival Of Cups and won his harness racing owners Brad Hewitt and Milly Marmont $15,000.

Spare Me Days won two of the six legs of the bonus – the Young Cup and Saturday night's Bulli Cup. The four year old also ran second in the Goulburn Cup, Penrith's Renshaw Cup and Bankstown's Sydney Cup.

Horses scored points in the series depending on finishing positions in each of the six legs while owners could earn their horse a bonus four points by attending the event and reporting to the Club Secretary.

The final Carnival Of Cups bonus points tally (including owners bonus points)

Spare Me Days	77
Condagen	43
Yayas Hot Spot	42
Beetson	24
Tact Tate	20
Betabcool	19
Pachacuti	17
Bling It On	16
Lochinver	16
Freyberg	15

In addition to the major Carnival Of Cups bonus there was a $5,000 participation bonus.  Horses became eligible for the participation bonus by competing in a minimum two of the six feature races and were rewarded with a ticket in the draw for every race feature meeting they competed at.  Therefore after earning five tickets in the draw, it wasn’t a shock when Spare Me Days won another $5,000 for his owners Brad and Milly.

After the announcement on Saturday night, Milly confirmed winning the money was well timed with an overseas trip coming up later this year.

“Brad and I are off to America later in the year so winning the $20,000 has come at a perfect time for us,” Milly Marmont said.

“When it was announced there was going to be bonuses for competing in the big races during the Carnival Of Cups we made the decision to target the races and it couldn’t have worked out any better.”

After competing in five of the six legs of the Carnival Of Cups bonus, Spare Me Days amassed $64,500 in prizemoney and won another $20,000 in bonuses.  

Greg Hayes