The answer will be known this afternoon when FR Sevilla Ind. & Dev.-owned charger leads a compact field chasing the top P600,000 purse in the P1 million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Grand Championship Cup race at the San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite.
Spread over 1,500 meters, the big Easter Sunday event caps another five-day racing at the newly-opened world class track with Are You Happy fancied to run away with the top purse in the day’s featured race among the noted graduates of last year’s PCSO’s Sweepstakes Races.
Are You Happy won here as the favorite last April 2, beating Red Bells, Desert Deb and Muro-ami but it will be a different field this time as equally-talented chargers King Hazm, Sensational and Montpellier will be out to foil the Antonio Alcasid Jr.-mounted horse.
Sensational, owned by Franchino Farms, Inc., is the only Sweepstakes winner in the field, having won the April 7, 2002 running of the PCSO maiden race at the Santa Ana Park.
The second placer will get P200,000 while the third and fourth finishers will receive P100,000 and P50,000, respectively. The winner breeder will also win P70,000. — Ramon Romualdez