The country’s premier horse racing club, the Manila Jockey Club, Inc., will be hosting the 11th edition of the Mayor Ramon D. Bagatsing Memorial Cup Racing Festival on Aug. 17 & 18 at the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.
The festival is held in honor of former Manila Mayor, Ramon D. Bagatsing Sr. who established an organization whose primary mission to care for the sick, help the poor and the less privileged in the city. Proceeds of the racing event will help fund the KABAKA Foundation Inc.
The Bagatsing family continues the legacy of selfless service to Manilenyos started by their patriarch having helped over 50,000 residents of the capital. The late mayor’s sons established the event in 2009. As longtime horse owners and breeders themselves, former Manila Congressmen Amado S. Bagatsing and Ramon S. Bagatsing Jr., ensure the annual racing spectacle lives on.
Of the 16 stakes race, two races will be celebrated as major headliners. The first of the high stakes race, the Resorts World Manila Challenge of Champions will feature 4 year old and above local and imported horses at a distance of 1,750 meters in what is now shaping up to be a Repeat-Revenge-Redemption Race. Among the notable horses running for the Challenge of Champions will be Hitting Spree, who is the defending Challenge of Champions winner; and an upstart imported entry called Viva Morena, who recently defeated Hitting Spree. Rounding up the list of entries are Certain to Win, Und Kantar, and Pangalusian Island.
The Mayor Ramon D. Bagatsing Sr. 3 YO Open Classics remains the primary racing event, pitting local and imported 3 year olds in this 1,50-meter high stakes race. Boss Emong, the winner of the 2nd Leg of this year’s Triple Crown Series and The Accountant, which won the 3rd leg of the Hopeful Stakes Race, will be joined by My Dad Bogart, Early Bird, and Phenomenal, with only one imported entry Will to Win in the starting gate.
The Resorts World Manila Challenge of Champions and the Mayor Ramon D. Bagatsing Sr. 3 YO Open Classics will give out a total of P1.9 million in cash prizes. P1 million (distributed) and P900,000 will be awarded respectively.
The Bagatsing Cup and the Mayor Ramon Bagatsing Racing Festival remain the highest grossing racing festival for the past six years including the record breaking sales of P43,281,228.00, garnered from the 2014 edition.
Major sponsors are Resorts World Manila, Philippine Racing Commission (PHILRACOM), the Manila Jockey Club, Inc.(MJCI), Manila Cockers Club Inc., Solaire Resort & Casino and Fundador. Racing event partners comprise of the following: City of Dreams, Winford Hotel and Casino, Mr. Eddie Gonzales’s EEG Development Corporation, and F.R. Sevilla Industrial and Development Corporation, San Jose Builders Inc. are among the early confirmed partners and sponsors of the annual event.