LAHORE: After suffering three consecutive defeats, dark-bay filly Gujrat One finally cemented her bloodline credentials with a spectacular victory in the feature event during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting at the Racecourse here on Sunday evening.

The daughter of Irish sire, Mazdher beat bay colt Prince by four and a half lengths easily with bay horse Admiral’s Walk far away third.

The Lorina Plate Class VI Division III and IV was contested by 11 acceptors with the winner clocking one minute 6 1/5 seconds over the sprinting distance of 1,100 metres.

A good day’s racing was marred by an act of indiscipline by Asim Raza, the owner of Shan-e-Sikandar.

Asim tried to hoodwink public by maneuvering his chestnut Shan-e-Sikandar after a false favourite.

Later he poured his money on his other horse Blue Max, whose odds had drifted upward after Shan-e-Sikandar became a public fancy.

When the race-goers smelt something fishy was going on, they lodged protests by calling upon the Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards to take a prompt action to save them from being ‘cheated’.

In order to put things on the right track, Shan-e-Sikandar was withdrawn from the race as a result and Blue Max opened a 50 to 100 favourite, a situation unfavourable to Asim Raza.

Asim approached the stewards and demanded withdrawal of his horses, Blue Max and Neeli The Great from the race. His demand was against the rules of racing and his behaviour lacked decency which invited wrath of the stewards. Asim was promptly expelled from the race club premises for good and his all the three horses barred from taking part in races for two years each. The LRC further announced cancellation of the fifth race.

In the sixth and the last race of the programme, an accident involving two horses paved the way for the victory of bay horse National Time. As the horses were turning their heads towards the straight dark-bay horse The Khan bumped into a couple of horses and disturbed favourite filly Blue Bell. As a result a couple of riders came down from their mounts.

The incident did not discourage Fazeel Asif Jah, owner of Blue Bell who has recently been installed in the ranks of owners. Fazeel had earlier told Dawn he was fond of equine sports which brought him in to racing.

Results:

THE MOJ-E-BAHAR PLATE CLASS VII DIV V — 900M:

Honey The Princess (Shahzad Ahmed) 8-2, Munir Hussain 1; Visper 9-0, Aftab Chaudhry 2; Desire 7-12, S. Raza 3; Artistic Flight 8-4, Fareed Ali 4.

Won by ¾ L, 4 ½ L, 1 ½ L. Time 57 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Rana Mohammad Arshad.

THE MOJ-E-BAHAR PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV — 900M:

Silent Warrior (Sajid Ali Khan) 8-6, Ghulam Haider 1; Piyara Jutt 8-4, S. Raza 2; Crazy Cat Lady 9-0, Shan 3; Bahar-Ul-Kahil 9-0, Adnan Khan 4.

Won by ¾ L, 2¾ L, 1½ L. Time 57 seconds. Winner trained by Nadeem Raza Khan.

THE MOJ-E-BAHAR PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV — 900M:

Murad King (Mohammad Qaiser Asghar) 9-0, Aamir Pervez 1; Risky Business 8-10 Mubashir Bhatti 2; Derby Brown 8-0, Mohammad Javed 3;. Sub Zero 8-8, Babar Rehman 4.

Won by Neck, ¾ L, 2 L, Time 57 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Abdullah.

THE LORINA PLATE CLASS VI DIV III & IV — 1,100M:

Gujrat One (Mohammad Qasim) 9-2, Aamir Pervez 1; Prince 8-8, Tahir Abbas 2; Admiral’s Walk 8-10, Alam Sher 3; Blue Moon 8-8, Riaz Hussain 4.

Won by 4½ L, 6½ L, short-head. Time one minute 6 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Waqas Ahmed.

THE MOJ-E-BAHAR PLATE CLASS VII DIV I — 1,100M:

Cancelled before the race was run.

THE MOJ-E-BAHAR PLATE CLASS VII DIV III & IV — 900M:

National Time (Mohammad Fayyaz) 8-8, Ghulam Haider 1; Zobi The Great 8-4, Mohammad Hanif 2; Rawal Naz 9-2, Mohammad Wasim Khan 3; Stone Queen 8-10, Sajjad Hussain 4.

Won by 7 L, ½ L, 2¾ L. Time 55 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Rafiq Khan.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2017