Dizzy Height annexes Gujrat Cup
LAHORE, Nov 9: Long shot bay mare, Dizzy Height, reached the dizzy heights of her racing career by winning the Gujrat Cup run over 1800m during the Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse on Sunday.
She beat the fancied imported filly Aegean Daisy, who was having her first run of the season since June Last.
Dizzy Height, who had been beaten thrice in her as many outings, was ridden admirably by riding boy Qasim Shah. She came from last to win the race. Trailing the field of eleven runners Dizzy Height took up the running just over 400m from home and from that position on, the race was soon hers.
The 30 to 100 favourite Aegean Daisy, an imported chestnut English filly, kept under pressure, filled the second spot two lengths behind the impressively ridden winner.
Chestnut colt, Royal Falcon, who ran fourth in the Pakistan Derby 2003, finished third another two lengths behind while bay gelding Think Thank completed the board, another four and-a-half lengths back.
Owned by Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman and trained by veteran Haji Ghulam Sarwar Dizzy Height won the feature and eighth race of the day.
Fancied bay colt Ponche simply outclassed his dozen rivals to win the Wazir Abad Cup run over 1600 metres.
The progeny of Polinesso out-of-Affifa and owned by Khawaja M. Arif. Ponche came with a perfectly-time challenge under jockey Salah-ud-Din II to take the advantage in the home stretch and flash past front-running Saqi to beat him by three clear lengths. Mahnoor and Kargil Tiger completed the frame. In all, 13 contestants took part in this seventh race of the afternoon.
Fancied bay colt, Prince Of Gujrat, put up a very smashing performance to capture the two-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies event under a powerful ride from jockey A. Aziz.
This son of Re-Play out-of- Next Generation trained by Amjad Ali Ii and owned by Hasan Parvez Akhtar beat on-rushing Baker Eye by two lengths. Trace Day and Russian Rhythm made up the board.
Jockey A. Aziz and the riding boy Qasim Shah stole the limelights of day’s racing by bringing home a brace of winners each. A. Aziz rode home Prince of Gujrat in the fifth race and Weldon Shogun in the ninth and last race of the day while Qasim Shah had his double through Gold Rush in the fourth race and Dizzy Height in the main and eighth event.
The Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards took strong notice of in- and-out running of bay filly Glorious Song, who won the sixth race in photo-finish. Owned jointly by a former Olympian Munir Dar and Fawad Cheema Glorious Song had finished off the board in her previous outing Sunday last.
The stewards suspended the licence of her trainer Manzoor Ahmad for six Months and also fined him rupees ten thousand.
Results:
Wagha Plate Class VII Div V 1200m.
Super Choice (Choudhry Mohammad Afzal) 7-8 Sardar Ali 1. Silver baby 8-11 Waqas Sheikh 2. Qandhar 9-0 M. Nawaz (II) 3. Brown Bomber 7-13 A. Aziz 4.
Won by 4 L, 3 L, 4 L. Time one min 19 2/5 secs. Winner trained by Raja Tehmasab Khan.
Wagha Plate Class VII Div IV 1200m.
The Assassin (Syed Tasweer Hussain Shah and S. N.Haider) 8-11 A. Imran 1. All At Sea 8-3 Khalil Vicky 2. Lucky Credit Queen 8-5 Parvez Bhatty 3. Dar’s Best 8-7 Aamar Parvez 4.
Won by 6 L, 3/4 L, 1 L. Time one min 17 1/5 secs. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.
Wagha Plate Class VII Div III 1200m.
Present Queen (Malik Nazeer Ahmad) 8-9 Khurrum Sheikh 1. Burrat Again 8-9 Salah-ud-Din (II) 2. Final Count Down 8-2 Iqbal Khan 3. Shot Fire 8-7 A. Aziz 4.
Won by 1 3/4 L, Head, 2 L. Time one min 17 2/5 secs. Winner trained by Shahzad Ali.
Wagha Plate Class VII div II 1200m.
Gold Rush (Safdar Ali) 8-7 Qasim Shah 1. Royal Class 8-11 Khalid Amin 2. Lot Of Thanks 8-12 Khurrum Sheikh 3. Black House 9-0 Mohsin Ali 4.
Won by 4 1/2 L, 1/2 L, 1/2 L. Time one min 17 secs. Winner trained by Abdul Rashid.
Neelum Plate. A term race for two-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies(Maidens) 1000m.
Prince Of Gujrat (Hasan Parvez Akhtar) 8-8 A.Aziz 1. Baker Eye 8-4 Javed Iqbal 2. Trace Day 8-7 Shahzad Iqbal 3. Russian Rhythm 8-4 Shahid Rehman 4.
Won by 2 L, 4 L, 4 L. Time one min 3 4/5 secs. Winner trained by Amjad Ali II.
Gojera Plate Class V Div I & II 1600m.
Glorious Song (Munir Ahmad Dar) 8-3 Aamar Parvez 1. Lucky Dawn 7-4 Nazir Ahmad 2. Love Moon 8-6 A. Aziz 3 Storm Bird 9-0 M. Zeeshan 4.
Won by Short-head, 4 L, 3 3/4 L. Time one min 44 3/5 secs. Winner trained by Manzoor Ahmad.
Wazir Abad Cup Class IV Div I & II 1600m.
Ponche (Khawaja M. Arif) 9-1 Salah-ud-Din (II) 1. Saqi 8-3 Shahid Rehman 2.Mahnoor 8-4 Qasim Shah 3. Kargil Tiger 7-13 Khalil Vicky 4.
Won by 3 L, 9 L, 2 3/4 L. Time one min 41 4/5 secs Winner trained by Mohammad Bashir.
Gujrat Cup Class I, II & III 1800m.
Dizzy Height (Raja Khushbakhat-ur-Rehman) 8-7 Qasim Shah 1. Aegean Daisy 7-10 M. Zeeshan 2. Royal Falcon 8-2 A. Imran 3. Think Thank 8-4 Khurrum Sheikh 4.
Won by 2 L, 2 1`/4 L, 4 1/2 L. Time one minute 56 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by haji Ghulam Sarwar.
Wagha Plate class VII Div I 1200M.
Weldon Shogun (Mian Sarfraz) A. Aziz 1. Lucky Winner 8-6 Majid Khan 2. Bone Crusher 9-0 M. Hussain 3. Mohni Road 8-13 Faisal Tahir 4.
Won by 6 L, 5 1/4 L, Neck. Time one min 16 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Badar.