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IT is
very disappointing to see our countrymen fighting for
gold and glory in the ongoing Southeast Asian Games in
Thailand and then being waylaid by the onslaught of
their rivals.
The
Philippines is hardly put in salvaging third overall
with the way officials in Thailand are making mockery of
the rules in various sports. As of this writing, our
boxers need to plaster their opponents to the canvas and
the men’s basketball team must not let their Thai rivals
score even a single basket in order to ensure a victory.
Officiating in
Thailand
is really worst, I don’t know why the SEA Games
officials never discuss it among themselves in the two
long years of preparations and discussions to make the
biennial meet reliable and noteworthy. I think the
Indonesians, who are the perennial champions, know it
already that lutong macau officiating in
Thailand
is like being massacred in every court you turn to.
The
surprise countries as of the moment are Vietnam and
Singapore, which are running second and third overall.
These are the drubbing boys of the SEA Games a long time
ago but look where are they now? One other reason for
our dismal performance in the said meet is the
never-ending bickering of our local sports officials. We
have seen it long before and we are still seeing it now.
Despite the changing of the guards in the various sports
organizations and top sports officialdom, bickering,
infighting and corruption still rear their ugly heads.
While
our athletes have painstakingly prepared very hard and
are now vigorously participating in their respective
sports, many of our sports officials play politics at
the sides. This is the very sorry state of our local
sports and the No. 1 reason why we are still lagging
behind our counterparts even in the lowly SEA Games
level. Masyado nang nakakahiya…
THE slew
of big-money races being held in the past few weeks has
resulted to two things. One, racing aficionados could no
longer see which among the current crop of champion
horses are really the best and, another is many
small-time owners and investors are crying for more
chances of receiving incentives such as more prizes in
winnings or being given an equal amount of stakes-like
races among those lower-rung horses.
As we go
around various places, we are met with various questions
of who really is the best horse today. With champion
horses joining several big-moneyed championships—thus
avoiding each other—racing fans are left with just
comparing the results of each of the big-time races we
have around.
Before,
we only had two major championship races—the
Presidential Gold Cup and the year-end Classic
Open—where racing fans can really know who is really the
best horse. The horse that wins the for-locals-only Gold
Cup can test the mettle of the best imported runners in
the Classic Open for a free-for-all race to see who the
best is.
With the
influx of excellent imported horses, the real test of
how the local breeding is doing can be done in a one
free-for-all, do-or-die megamillion-bucks matchup of
mixed participants. The rest of the prize money that is
still available can be distributed in a monthlong,
all-day cup or trophy races that will have additional
prize money. The added prizes in every race for the
whole month of November or December is a sure-fire
formula to attract not only the racing fans but also all
the owners and investors, whether they are big or small,
to participate.
THE two
past winners of the Presidential Gold Cup failed in
their desperate bid to make it double in the blue-ribbon
event of the local racing industry on Sunday.
But the
biggest story in that event was the runaway victory of
Native Land, who surprisingly became the odds-on choice
by the bettors in the long 2,000-meter race by virtue of
his overpowering victory in the recent Marho Breeders’
Cup Classic.
Although
Native Land was the top choice in the sales, the diehard
followers of Real Spicy and Empire King, both former
champions in the annual major event that offered a total
of P2.42 million this year, still gave their respective
idols their support in the betting. Thus, Real Spicy,
now at five, and Empire King, now at six, fared very
well in the tote board.
But
after the race was over, it was very clear that Native
Land was the best horse as he fashioned out a
three-length victory at the payoff wire that was worth a
cool P1.5 million for owner Tony Tan. The six -year-old
horse by Conquistarose out of Fair Native who was ridden
by Jesse Guce stopped the clock at 2:06.6, way off the
national mark. It was jockey Guce’s second consecutive
victory in the Gold Cup as he guided last year’s winner
Real Spicy.
Mr.
Victory, the second choice in the sales, finished second
for P500,000 while Real Spicy checked in third for
P250,000 and Empire King fourth for P125,000. Other
finishers included Sound Of Silence fifth, Tellemnolies
sixth, and Batong Silyar seventh and last.
In the
2007 Philracom Grand Sprint Championship that was
disputed that day, Nardy Naval’s Vivere (by Heza Gone
West-Vice Shy), ridden by jockey JB Hernandez, eked out
a scintillating come-from-behind victory to bag the top
prize of P600,000. Pacesetting Business Class of Joseph
Dyhengco checked in second for P225,000 while Bienvenido
Niles’s Bumble Bee was third for P125,000 and Benhur
Abalos’s Nothing Impossible was fourth for P50,000. The
other finishers in the event were Million Dollar (fifth)
and Royal Academy (sixth) and last.
In the
other P1-million Yearend Invitational Race also
sponsored by the Philracom, EJ’s Magic, ridden by
Dominador Borbe Jr., surprised the favorites with an
overpowering top-of-the-stretch run to win the top prize
of P600,000 for owner Edith Jose. Runner-up Macho Man
picked up P225,000 while Golden Connection finished
third for P125,000 and El Terrible was fourth for
P50,000. Heavily favored Pearl Buck was a disappointing
fifth followed by Manila Magic and Playmaker in that
order. |
