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TWO
major names in the local racing scene these days are
slowly but surely making a comeback.
I’m
referring to Mayor Benhur Abalos’s Ibarra (the first
two-leg winner of the Triple Crown Series last year) and
Nery Sunga’s Es Twenty Six (winner of the last leg, when
Ibarra was operated on for a hairline foot injury). The
two easily won their respective barrier-trial runs on
Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ibarra
seemed to have put on extra muscle, developing into a
mature four-year-old. He won with jockey Kelvin Abobo
hanging on his reins tightly from start to finish
Tuesday afternoon. He was clocked a respectable 54
seconds in the 900-meter race with stops of
0:07-0:23-0:24. The horse hardly worked out a sweat as
the impressed racing fans who saw the barrier trial were
one in saying that “Ibarra is ready for the big fight
ahead.”
Mayor
Abalos, during a talk with other players in the industry
on the first night of the wake of Philippine Racing
Commission chairman’s Joy Rojas II’s mom at the
Sanctuario de San Antonio, cautioned that they are
cooking up something for Ibarra “if he performs quiet
well in his next three or four runs.”
I will
tell you what it is as soon as Mayor Abalos says that
it’s no longer off the record. But I’m afraid we’ll have
to wait another one or two months before that happens.
On the
other hand Es Twenty Six, which was given a five-month
vacation after bagging the rich Presidential Derby in
December, performed superbly on the same distance on
Wednesday afternoon. She stopped the clock in the same
900 meters at 53.6 with 0:07-0:22-0:24.
With the
timing of their return to the track, it can be safely
said that both of them are angling for a stint in the
December Presidential Gold Cup.
There is
still unfinished business between Ibarra and Es Twenty
Six. The latter was beaten by Ibarra in the first two
legs of the series last year, but he was no longer
around when he was pulled out, surprisingly, by his
connections in the third and final legs, which were won
by Es Twenty Six.
The two
may have their hands full with the way the superstars of
the ongoing Triple Crown Championship Series are shaping
up lately. Indelible Ink, winner of the recent first
leg, is currently aiming for a sweep of the series but
her archrivals Don Enrico, Shining Fame and several
others are firm on their resolve to thwart her Triple
Crown aspirations.
You
better have a good seat at the racetrack when these
big-name superstars meet and match their talents in one
good fight one after the other come December.
****
THE big
question mark hovering over Big Brown’s loss at the
Belmont—and its claim for immortality—was answered at
last.
And it
was the very respectable BloodHorse magazine that gave
everyone the reason the heavily favored colt was
suddenly eased by his rider while running third in the
backstretch. The culprit was definitely the shoes on its
hind leg that was stepped on by a horse when they went
off the starting gate.
BloodHorse showed several photos taken by Eliot
Schechter and a freelance photographer Bob Mayberger
where one can easily see how the shoes got dislodged
from the hind foot of Big Brown. The shoe is still
dislodged just as it was in the original photo taken
shortly after the break. So, the colt ran the entire
race with a dislodged shoe [that had a bend or
turn-down] and the nail still in it.
“I saw
the pictures and there’s no way I can rule out the
possibility that it hampered the horse. It’s extremely
possible that it bothered this horse,” said Big Brown’s
controversial trainer Rick Dultrow,
“Two
things I don’t get. Right after the race I was all over
the horse and the only thing I saw was that back shoe
had spread a little bit.”
“As I
walked back I called the blacksmith and said I need to
take this back shoe off. He walked sound on it in the
test barn and after we took the shoe off,” added Dultrow,
who got a recent suspension for drug use on one of his
horses.
“The
blacksmith even had to use his tools to pry the shoe
off. And the jock said he didn’t feel anything, so this
is too much for me to handle. But now that I’ve seen the
pictures I have to keep an open mind to it. The pictures
don’t lie. The bottom line is, tomorrow is another day.”
By the
way, Big Brown will definitely race again, and his
connections are said to have been pointing him for the
Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on August 3.
Regular rider Kent Desourmeaux is expected to be back on
the saddle. After that race, Big Brown will be having
another prep race for the $5-million Breeders’ Cup
Classic set on October 25 at the Santa Anita Park. It
will mark as his final start before he is retired at the
Three Chimney’s Park in Kentucky.
Many are
hoping Curlin, last year’s Horse of the Year, will be
there in the lineup for the Classic. But this early,
Curlin’s connections have different plans for their
horse.
After
bagging the recent $1-million Stephen Foster’s Handicap
at Churchill Downs, Curlin is being pointed to a
possible trip to Paris for the Gran Prix de L’arc de
Triomphe at Longchamp on October 5, which will be run on
turf. But it was reported that should Curlin, which has
not run on turf in his 12-race career, display an
affinity for the surface in that work, Asmussen has said
he would look for a race over the surface in mid-July.
Curlin has already won nine races out of 12 with one
second and two third-place finishes. He had already
earned a whopping total of $9,396,800.
****
THE mother of Philracom chief Jose Ferdinand Rojas II—Emiliana
“Aling Mely”—will be laid to rest tomorrow, Saturday,
after a 1 p.m. Mass at the Manila Memorial Park in
Parañaque. |
