Materiales Fuertes shows right stuff

She doesn't have the winning streak of Amphitheatre at the Santa Ana Park nor the regal lineage of Hazmoore, but Materiales Fuertes showed yesterday she has the "material" to win big racing events.

Materiales Fuertes pulled off one of the most stirring upsets in a Triple Crown series as she humbled a star-studded field with an explosive run at the top of the stretch to rule the accident-marred Cojuangco Cup by a wide margin.

The poor start and the muddied track failed to slow down the massive filly and the quick-starting field proved not much of a challenge for Materiales Fuertes, who zoomed past all the 11 horses in front of her with consummate ease at the far turn before galloping past top pick Amphitheatre down the stretch for that six-length victory.

Jockey Jeffrey Zarate even failed to bring out the best from the three-year-old charger by Gut Feel out of the Pain in the Neck as he accidentally dropped the whip in the last 150 meters and only applied his hand in steering Materiales Fuertes to that rousing victory worth P1 million for the Javier family.

Materiales Fuertes, who sold only P92,989 out of the grand total sales of P1,406,408, covered the 1,600-meter event in 1:42.4 seconds for the triumph, which snapped Amphitheatre's four-win run at Sta. Ana, put to naught Hazmoore's regal connections and underscored the pre-race forecast of a wide-open battle for the crown.

But the victory also showed the good lineage of Materiales Fuertes, a three-fourths sister of Strong Material, the famed superhorse who swept the Triple Crown series in 1996.

With Materiales Fuertes falling into her old, bad habit at the gates where she jumped out last, the quick-stepping Amphitheater and Hazmoore expectedly stormed upfront with the former outduelling the latter at the far turn.