Conquer D’ Sun rules Sun God race

Not even a shaky start and a scrambling finish could stop Conquer D’ Sun from conquering the field and winning the Sun God Stakes race at sundown.

The three-year-old bay colt by Conquistarose out of Rising Sun put on a late, late charge running six-wide to beat Security Risk and Bidang Bida and win the very first stakes event of the year at San Lazaro yesterday.

He was the unfancied of the coupled entry of owner Joy Rojas, the other being Art of Rose, but Conquer D’ Sun proved the better horse in the end as he ruled the 1,500-meter event that also served as the dry run for this year’s Triple Crown series.

Despite taking the innermost rail, Conquer D’ Sun burst out of the gates virtually out of control with jockey Joey Macaraig frantically trying to settle down his mount to avoid hitting the rail, his coupled entry and Bakasan.

He only made his move at the far turn as Art of Rose, the top favorite, began to lose her steam and faded out behind speedster Security Risk, Bidang Bida and Bakasan.

As they swung for home, Bidang Bida and Security Risk fought it out neck-and-neck with the latter appearing to have outlasted the former at the inner rail until Conquer D’ Sun, running six-wide, responded mightily to Macaraig’s urgings and galloped home to the snatch the victory worth P240,000 for the Rojas family.

in the early going of the 1,500-meter race.

Security Risk took home the P90,000 second prize while Bidang Bida settled for third worth P50,000. — R. Romualdez