Injured Real Top retires

Real Top, one of the finest gallopers ever to grace the local horseracing scene, has been retired.

Real Top suffered windpipe problems (hagok) and was operated on at a cost of P1 million. He could have continued racing. But since he would never be in the top form, his owner, Eric Tagle, preferred to retire him.

He has been syndicated for stud – 50 shares at P75,000 each. This will start in the 2001 breeding season in Tagle’s farm in Lipa, Batangas, and his foals will come in 2002.

Tagle says Real Top and Silver Story, currently the hottest two-year-old and owned by Patrick Uy, cannot be compared with each other at this point. Real Top did not show much progress as a two-year-old, posting his biggest victories at age 3 and 4. On the other hand, we’ve seen Silver Story as a very successful two-year-old.

The comparison should come when Silver Story races as a three-year-old, when he will be asked to go classic distances of 1,600 meters and above.

Although he admits he is biased, Tagle believes no horse in the country will ever match Real Top’s record in performance and money earnings. — Ramon Romualdez