LAHORE: Chestnut filly Rain Bird was given an absolute gem of a ride by experienced jockey Mohammad Hanif to win the Gilgit Cup during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting at the floodlit Racecourse here on Sunday evening.

The three-year-old daughter of English sire Thousands World flew like a bird in the early stages of the 1,100-metre race to register her maiden success in a performance which the racing pundits described as that of high quality.

Trained by Haji Abid Mahmood, the 30-100 rated favourite Rain Bird beat upstaged fellow filly Costa Rica by half-e-length.

Costa Rica kept her second spot intact by finishing second for the eighth time without a win in 15 outings to-date. This is a rare instance in the racing history of the club a filly or colt occupying second spot for eight times without winning a race.

Long before there was an instance when LRC chairman Tariq Aziz’s horse won two consecutive races and was promoted to class III. He then finished second or third nearly a dozen times but could not win a race before being retired for stud duty.

The victory of Rain Bird gave Hanif third winner of the day/night sports after he had earlier piloted home to to victories red-roan colt Zoaq-e-Yaqeen in the second race and filly Wali Choice in the fifth race.

Trainer Ghulam Abbas Shah sent out two winners in Janab and Zoaq-e-Yaqeen in the opening two races, respectively.

The Punters and turf accountants shared the proceedings on even terms when three well-backed favourite horses won in a card of six events. The favourite horses to win were Double Action (50-100) in the second race, Wali Choice (40-100) in the fifth race and Rain Bird (30-100) in the sixth race.

Heavily-backed bay fill, She, — a 25-100 favourite — was beaten by long shot chestnut colt Janab in the opener. The 60-100 favourite bay colt Hockey Star was outsmarted by 5-2 chance Zoaq-e-Yaqeen in the second race, while the co-favourites bay filly Nice Moon and filly King Queen were beaten by 3-2 brown horse Sayban-e-Bhakkar in the fourth race to level up the proceedings evenly.

The enforcement of strict disciplinary code for the owners, trainers and riders plus and adherence to racing rules without any distinction have resulted in enhancing fairness, transparency and quality of the equine sports.

The presence of LRC chairman Tariq Aziz at every racing day and taking cognizance of malpractices have minimized the mafia’s scope to tarnish the image of the genteel sports and all the sections of the fraternity seems satisfied on the staging of the sports in all fairness.

Results:

THE MIANWALI PLATE CLASS VII DIV VI — 1,000M:

Janab (Sabir Ali) 8-2, Munir Hussain 1; She 8-10, Sunny Babu 2; Chamak 8-6, Zain Manzoor 3; Naroobi 8-2, Safdar Ali 4.

Won by 2 L, 1¾ L, 1½ L. Time: one minute 5 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Abbas Shah.

THE MIANWALI PLATE CLASS VII DIV V — 1,000M:

Zoaq-e-Yaqeen 8-4, Mohammad Hanif 1; Hockey Star 8-0, Deenar Mirwani 2; Turab Prince 9-2, Ghulam Haider 3; Aie Muskan 9-0, Aftab Chaudhry 4.

Won by 1 L, distance, 2¼ L. Time: one minute 3 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Abbas Shah.

THE MIANWALI PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV — 1,000M:

Double Action (Mirza Latif Baig) 8-10, Deenar Mirwani 1; New Sonia 9-0, Ghulam Haider 2; Nice One 8-10, Anjum 3; She Is Rawal 9-0, S. Moin 4.

Won by 4 L, 4 L, 6 L. Time: one minute 3 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Zahid Khan.

THE MIANWALI PLATE CLASS VII DIV III & IV — 1,000M:

Sayban-e-Bhakkar (Ali Raza Zia) 9-0, Aftab Chaudhry 1; Nice Moon 8-6, Mohammad Zulfiqar 2; Blue Max 8-2, Tahir Abbas 3; King Queen 8-6, Deenar Mirwani 4.

Won by 3 L, Neck, 2½ L. Time: one minute three seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Afzal.

THE MIANWALI PLATE CLASS VII DIV I & II — 1,000M:

Wali Choice (Aftab Ahmed) 9-0, Mohammad Hanif 1; Big Foot 8-6, Ghulam Haider 2; Candle 9-4, Tahir Abbas 3; After Hero 8-6, Pervez Bhatti 4.

Won by 2 L, 2 L, 7 L. Time: one minute 1 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Abid.

THE GILGIT CUP CLASS VII DIV I — 1,100M:

Rain Bird (Mahmood Ahmed) 8-10, Mohammad Hanif 1; Costa Rica 8-4. Aftab Chaudhry 2; Abdullah Princess 8-6. Deenar Mirwani 3; Sumy Choice 9-0. Tahir Abbas 4.

Won by ½ L, 2 L, 6 L. Time: one minute 7 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Abid Mahmood.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2019