A whopping P3-million pot will be up for grabs when eight of the country’s finest horses, led by favorites Obra Maestra and Real Gold mix it up in the first leg of the most prestigious racing extravaganza for three-year-old horses—the Philippine Racing Commission’s Triple Crown series on Sunday at the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.
The champion horse of the 1st leg gets the lion’s share champion’s purse of P1.8 million, with the runner-up and the third placer taking P675,000 and P375,000, respectively. Fourth placer receives P150,000 even as P100,000 is allotted to the breeder of the winning horse.
“We are very excited with the coming 1st leg of the Triple Crown because of the caliber of the local horses participating in this year’s event with the eventual winner setting the pace for 2019. The horse that wins will not only earn its place in history, but will set the bar for the succeeding legs in the following months. We wish all the runners the best of luck!” said Andrew Sanchez, Philracom chairman.
The overwhelming picks to snatch the title away are C&H Enterprises’ Rel Gold and and Leonardo Javier Jr.’s Obra Maestra, the undefeated Horse of the Year and Champion 2YO of the Year by the Metropolitan Association of Race Horse Owners after earning P3.48 million in prizes in 2018.
Standing in the way of the two are are Boss Emong (jockey JT Zarate, owner Edward Vincent M. Diokno); JAYZ (Ja Guce, SC Stockfarm, Inc.); My Jopay (RD Raquel Jr., Moises B. Villasenor); My Shelltex (JB Hernandez, Antonio V. Tan, Jr.); Toy for the Bigboy (JB Cardova, Alfredo Santos) and Westeros (AR Villegas, Juan Miguel D. Yulo).
As a runner-up to the Triple Crown, the 1st leg of the Philracom’s Hopeful Stakes Race highlights 12 outstanding local horses in Best Regards, Dugong Bughaw, Gepnits, Gil’s Magic, Harapin ang Bukas, Kentucky Rain, Mood Swing, Phenomenal, Shanghai Noon, The Accountant, Two Timer and Turns Gold. Winner takes home his share of P1 million. Race distance is 1,600 meters.
Rounding up the Philracom races is the 1st leg of the Locally Bred Stakes Race featuring a full gate of fourteen runners namely coupled runners Always Ready and Sure Win, Caludia’s Pride, Coup d’ Etat, Electrify, Iikot Lang, Mona’s Mark, Oktubre Katorse, Ready Set Go, Serafina, Silab, Sultanov, Trust Worthy and Weather Lang.
Total prize of P500,000 will be given to the winners of this 1,600 meter distance race.
The last horse to win all three legs was Sepfourteen of SC Stockfarm in 2017. Prior to Sepfourteen’s Triple Crown achievement two years ago, the last time one horse won it all in one year was in 2014 when Emmanuel Santos’s colt Kid Molave (Into Mischief x Unsaid) scored the rare 3-peat.
