NAIC, Cavite — From now on, bettors will give an imported horse named Dona Nenita a lot of respect.

In a startling upset yesterday, far third choice Dona Nenita beat outstanding favorite Yes Pogi and four others to capture the Philracom Amethyst I, second leg of the Imported-Local Challenge series, at the Santa Ana Park here.

Handled by veteran Val Dilema, the 4-year-old bay filly rallied from as far back as fifth spot starting in the mid-backstretch, pulled abreast with the leaders turning for home and finished with a lot to spare in the long 1700-meter race.

The winning time was 1 minute and 48.6 seconds for Dona Nenita, whose conquest of five other imported runners in a regular race last week was not enough to catch the fancy of bettors.

Ignored, Dona Nenita started yesterday’s event carrying only some P60,000 in bets out of the P781,955 daily double pool, P461,809 of which went to multi-titled Yes Pogi who finished a badly-beaten fourth in a field of six.

Owned by Antonio Floirendo and trained by R. Hipolito, Dona Nenita rewarded her stable the top prize of P300,000 put up by the sponsoring Philippine Racing Commission.

Second choice Next Big Thing, who set the pace for the most part under Pattie Dilema, came home about two lengths behind Dona Nenita as he salvaged runner-up honors worth P112,500.

Dona Nenita’s coupled entry, the Mark Alvarez-ridden Rain Shower, finished strongly using the inner rail to bag third place and the P82,500 prize that went with it.

Merry wound up fifth, while Indy Hay came home sixth in the event that featured only six runners following the withdrawal of top import Gentle Irony, the pride and joy of lawyer Narciso Morales who topped the kickoff leg early last month.

Taking off brilliantly, Next Big Thing set the pace early and led by as many as five lengths over Merry as the field left the backstretch.

Going into the far turn, Yes Pogi started to make his move with Dona Nenita, using the outer rail, following suit. As they turned for home, Dona Nenita, Next Big Thing, Rain Shower and Yes Pogi raced in that order, with only about half-a-length separating them.

But Dona Nenita proved she had more to give as she raced away in the final 200 meters to finish a good two meters in front of Next Big Thing and three over Rain Shower, who overtook Yes Pogi in the closing strides.