Wind Blown faces Silver Story in big matchup

It is not too often that the racing public is treated to a clash of two of perhaps the best chargers ever to have graced the local turf. So expect an overflow crowd not only at San Lazaro but in all the off-track betting stations as Wind Blown and Silver Story dispute the First Gentleman Silver Cup today.

Although experts have picked the four-year-old Wind Blown over Silver Story owing to his experience in top-level stakes races, the latter remains a threat and a favorite by those who have witnessed the rise to stardom of the three-year-old charger in the last eight months.

In fact, Silver Story, voted as top horse last year by the Philippine Sportswriters Association, has been installed as the heavy favorite to sweep this year’s Triple Crown series with no other three-year-old likely to foil him in his bid for racing immortality.

But today’s blue-ribbon event, a P1.6 million championship held in honor of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and sponsored by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, is far more different from those races Silver Story had dominated since, this time, he is ranged against the veteran stakes-race campaigners.

There are Triple Crown leg winner Materiales Fuertes, Streets of Gold, Gold Edition, High Roller, Greely Good and Sweet Lover with Hammerhead being the only other three-year-old runner in the field.

But focus will be on Wind Blown, the Hermie Esguerra-owned charger and the Philracom’s choice as last year’s best horse, whose victories included a Triple Crown leg, the Grand Futurity, the Presidential Gold Cup and the Chairman’s Cup last month.

Wind Blown had actually beaten Silver Story in a special race at Sta. Ana last year but the second face-off, set at 4:45 p.m., will be an entirely different affair since the grey colt will be coming from a series of victories that included a sweep of the juvenile championships last year.

It will also be a clash of two of the country’s finest riders with Fernando Raquel steering Wind Blown and Jonathan Hernandez back on top of Silver Story. — Dante Navarro