THIRTEEN runners have been declared to run in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office 3YO Open race on Feb. 13 at San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.
Fourteen ran the 1,500-meter trial race held last Jan. 29. The entries were divided into two batches, with the following order of arrival:
Batch 1: Pinagtipunan, Space Needle, Professor Jones, Pamilican Island, Mighty Pride, Pangarap, and Secret Kingdom.
Mayor Benhur Abalos’s Pinagtipunan had the best time overall at 1:37 (18.6-25.4-25.6-27.4) under the guidance of jockey Jonathan Hernandez. Stony Road Horse Farm’s Space Needle clocked 1:37.2 and Raymund Puyat’s Professor Jones, 1:37.6. The others were timed at 1:38 and slower.
Batch 2: Kangaroo Court, Indianpana, Johnny Be Good, Graf, Creative, Artikulo Uno, and Kaligayahan.
Lawyer Narciso Morales’s Kangaroo Court did 1:37.8, and the others in this batch posted times of 1:38 and slower.
Indianpana, despite passing the trial, opted out of the actual race, leaving 13 runners.
Space Needle, Secret Kingdom, and Graf are fillies and will carry 52 kgs. handicap weight. The others are colts and will carry 54 kgs.
I’d say look closely at the ones I mentioned that set times below 1:38. It’s likely that Pinagtipunan will be the favorite come raceday.
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Racing fans looking to take their dates somewhere special can spend their Valentine’s Day at SLLLP watching the 1,400-meter 1st leg Import/Local Challenge sponsored by the Philippine Racing Commission.
SLLP has an open-air dining area at the ground floor of their turf club directly fronting the racetrack, with live singers and a band. They also have a fine-dining restaurant and bar, Chantilly on the third floor.
The second Philracom-backed stakes race for the month is the 1,400-meter 4YO and Older Stakes, set for Feb. 28 at Metroturf.
PHilracom offers an average of two stakes races per month, with more staged in the latter part of the year, when the juveniles get stronger and can join more races.
In 2015, Philracom supported the racing industry with P43.32 million in prizes for its sponsored stakes races, and conducted 20 charity races with proceeds to the beneficiaries amounting to P3.5 million.
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