Following an undefeated 2019 racing season, champion horse Union Bell and its owner Bell Racing Stable led the honorees of the 2020 Philippine Racing Commission (Philracom) Awards on Sunday at the Chantilly Bar of the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.
The undisputed 2YO champion was crowned 2019 Stakes Races Horse of the Year by the Philracom after going a perfect six for six wins last year, including five scintillating stakes races victories—the most by any horse in the 2019 racing calendar.
The two-year-old colt (sire Union Rags, USA; dam Tocqueville, ARG) started its streak with a win in a 2YO regular race on September 25, 2019, before sweeping the rest of its five stakes races assignments, namely all the three legs of the Philracom Juvenile Colts and Stakes Races and the two legs of the Philtobo Juvenile Championships.
Union Bell’s undefeated season netted for the Bell Racing Stable of owner Elmer de Leon the award for Stakes Races Horse Owner of the Year, with his son Loel and brother Joseph receiving the awards from Philracom officials Chairman Andrew A. Sanchez, commissioners Victor Tantoco and Lyndon Guce and executive director Andrew Rovie Buencamino.
Star jockey Jonathan B. Hernandez, who steered Union Bell to all of those triumphs, was named Stakes Races Jockey of the Year.
Sharing the spotlight with Union Bell was Real Gold, which was crowned as Top Earning Horse of the Year with a total of (P7.4M) by virtue of its two of three wins in the Triple Crown Series of the Philracom. Real Gold is owned by Jesus Ramon Mamon of C&H Enterprises.
Named 2019 Stakes Races Horse Trainer of the Year was Danilo Sordan.
Ruben Tupas was awarded as Top Earning Trainer of the Year (P2.6M), while Atty. Narciso Morales was crowned as the Top Earning Horse Owner of the Year (P38.9M).
The Top Earning Jockey of the Year award was given to Jesse B. Guce (P3.7M), while the Horse Breeder of the Year title was handed to Joseph C. Dyhengco, whose Breeder’s Purse earnings amounted to P578,000 on 115 wins.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Presidential Gold Cup was named as the Most Successful Racing Festival of the Year, while the Manila Jockey Club emerged as 2019 Racing Club of the Year Based on Total Gross Sales of the Day.
The MJC also got the award for 2019 Racing Club of the Year (Based on Total Amount of Horse Prizes), with its racing manager Jose Ramon Magboo receiving the club’s awards.
“These awardees prove that the Philippine horse-racing industry will always have an abundance of achievers despite the challenges. We at the Philracom look forward to more achievers in the 2020 racing calendar so that the industry can stay vibrant and dynamic,” said Sanchez.