Heartening To See, the longest shot in the five-horse field, put on a heartwarming show and won the recent August edition of the 2023 Philracom 2YO Maiden Stakes at the Metro Manila Turf Club in Malvar, Batangas.
With only P4,000 sales to her credit, the chestnut filly by Sakima out of Lemoniscious held off the late charge of James Anthony Rabano’s Amor My Love (Low Profile-Arriba Amor) by less than a length at the wire to take home P720,000 top prize.
This marked the second time in as many Sundays that the partnership between trainer Christopher “Boyet” Guerra and jockey Peter John “Patar” Guce struck gold, last week with Badboy MJ in the Philracom 3YO Sprint.
Basically employing the same strategy used last week with Badboy MJ’s victory, Guce and his mount stayed within striking distance of the pace duel between top-pick Sonnet Forty Three (Ulitimate Goal-Facil Katana) and Bravemansgame (Lemon Drop Title-Coloured Veil) while quite far behind her was Amor My Love with Upscale Bell (Sakima-Upscale Storm) at the tail-end.
It was only with 75m left that the eventual winner took the lead over the visibly tired Sonnet Forty Three and now wary of the fast approaching Amor My Love. But Amor My Love’s dash came a little too late and had to settle for second.
Salvaging third was Sonnet Forty Three with Bravemansgame coming in fourth.
The 1200m event was clocked at 1:13.2.
