By Jenny Ortuoste

POLICE are investigating the stabbing of 11 racehorses at the Manila Jockey Club?s San Lazaro Leisure Park in Carmona, Cavite, by an assailant who could have been drunk or high on drugs.

The attacker stabbed the horses owned by Tarlac Rep. Jeci Aquino Lapus in the head, shoulders and ribcage around 1 or 2 a.m. on Jan 18, and the attack was not discovered until 4 a.m., they said.

?None has died yet, but one or two are serious. The rest are okay,? Jeci, younger brother of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, said in a text message.

?This was done by heartless individuals, whoever they are.?

The motive for the stabbings is yet to be established, but police said the attacker appeared to be right-handed and could have been drunk or high on drugs at the time.

There could have been as many as four attackers, they said.

The weapon appeared to have been a sharpened strip of metal with electrical tape wound around it serving as a handle, veterinarian Jojo Buencamino said.

Racehorse Serious Susie was stabbed in the forehead, and the weapon was still embedded in it when a groom found her, Buencamino said.

The other injured horses were Harrod?s Magic, Grey Magic, Lever Action, Mountain Cat, Red Lotus, General Onay, Even Now, Gondor, Joint Account and Karma.

The horses were at the holding paddock, an area where the horses are kept while awaiting their turn to race. Close by are the stables of trainer Boy Raquel and those belonging to Panalo Farms, which is owned by the club?s Reyno family.

Witnesses claim to have heard the guard dogs barking at the nearby veterinary supplies store around 1 a.m., but no one bothered to check them out.

Lapus? grooms were still asleep as they had gone to bed exhausted after digging a hot-walking area for their horses near the holding paddock.

Racing head groom Gigi Dacanay said police were looking for a suspect, Idong alias Longlong, an aide in a nearby stable. She cited a witness as saying Idong owned the weapon used on the horses.

The suspect apparently had no connections to the congressman?s racing operations, and his motive was still unknown.

News of the attack has gone around the small and tightly knit racing community, and people are aghast. No one remembers anything like it happening before.

Lapus said the matter had been brought to the attention of President Arroyo.