Gold Cup champ to pocket record P2-M prize

Thousands of racing fans are expected to troop to the San Lazaro Leisure Park (SLLP) in Carmona, Cavite this coming Sunday as the Manila Jockey Club, Inc. (MJCI) hosts the year’s most prestigious horse race with the running of the 31st PCSO Presidential Gold Cup Race.

MJCI will be hosting the coveted Presidential Gold Cup Race for the 19th time since the event’s inaugural running in 1973 and will stage the same at the country’s newest and most modern horse racing complex, which began operations only last April.

"Befitting its stature as the highest point of the yearly racing calendar, we are certainly most grateful for the steadfast support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in spearheading this annual classic which serves as the marquee event of the local horse racing industry," according to MJCI vice president for corporate management Henri Kahn.

Lending his support to this year’s running of the PCSO Presidential Gold Cup is industrialist-horseman, Don Antonio Floirendo, who has generously donated P500,000 as additional prize money to this year’s Golf Cup winner.

With the additional P500,000 winner’s purse, this year’s Presidential Gold Cup champion is guaranteed to receive a whopping P2-million and instant elevation to the pantheon of racing greats.

This year’s running of the coveted classic has lured the participation of 11 of the country’s top gallopers who’ll be vying for a shot at local racing’s holy grail.