Patience is indeed a virtue as Big Lagoon came through with a great tactical race to win the P10 million 2022 Philracom-PCSO Presidential Gold Cup last Sunday, Dec. 18, at the Metro Manila Turf Club in Malvar, Batangas.
The five-year-old bay horse by Havana out of Blue Catch waited for the right time to strike in the lung-busting 2,000-meter and when he did, he blew past the frontrunners – Sky Shot, Ambisioso and Silver Cup champ Boss Emong – one after another to rule the country’s racing event.
From fourth in the early stage of the race, Big Lagoon, owned by Melaine Habla, made his move in the last 600 meters that saw him get past Boss Emong and was going toe-to-toe with Sky Shot.
Since the distance was to his liking, Big Lagoon eventually grabbed the lead with another burst of speed to the delight of his supporters.
But in winning the race, Ruben Tupas-trained galloper needed to repel the late charge of Leonardo "Sandy" Javier Jr.'s Super Swerte to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths. He stopped the clock at 2:04 (24'-23-25-24-27').
The win gave Big Lagoon's connections the top prize of P6 million while Super Swerte had to settle for P2 million. Boss Emong still finished third worth P1 million followed by Sky Shot (P500,000 ) and Victorious Colt fifth (P300,000).
Sharing the limelight with Big Lagoon was former PGC champion Pangalusian Island who bid farewell with a ceremonial gallop to the cheers of the crowd.
Incidentally, the PGC day lived up to its billing as one of the top draws after the
13-race card produced the highest single day sales for the year at P31,642,563 and the week's P89,031,316 in sales is also the highest during the four-day week racing schedule.