LAHORE: Odds-on favourite colt Champ landed the Karakoram Cup run in record time during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting here at the floodlit Racecourse on Sunday evening.

Champ clocked 52 2/5 seconds in the 900-metre race while bettering the previous record of 52 3/5 seconds set by La Belle and Zindabad last month.

In the process Champ completed a hat-trick of cup triumphs under jockey Aftab Choudhry.

However, the joyous scene soon ended in the following race when favourite colt Red Rock clocked an astonishing 52 seconds to win the Himalaya Cup run over the identical distance.

Red Rock was guided to a brilliant triumph by jockey Safdar Hussain who also won the Jockeys Championship for the 2022-23 season with a tally of 50 victories.

That included his fine treble recorded on Sunday through Jalpana Prince, Red Rock and Marryshah Pride.

Mister Mac clinched the opening race while Jalpana Prince won the third. Both were trained by Rashid Latif who leads the trainers’ statistics table for 2023 with 47 wins followed by Mohammad Afzal (46) with only one race meeting left on June 25.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2023