LAHORE, Jan 17: The spectre of bogus registration of horses with fake pedigrees has once again raised its ugly head at the Lahore Race Club (LRC) and the situation war-rants immediate corrective measures.

Early this month two incidents of bogus pedigrees came to light which caused an alarm and concern among the horse-breeders and owners, whose animals are of genuine pedigrees and have been rightly registered as such.

In one case, the LRC had to withdraw the mare Song Of Peace from racing under orders from the Jockey Club of Pakistan (JCP). and later the LRC stewards barred participation of the filly Royal Fantasy from races.

It has been alleged that both the horses have been fraudulently registered by presenting bogus pedigree-documents.

Alarmed by the incidents, the breeders and owners have urged the authorities to deal with such “unscrupulous breeders and owners” with a heavy hand to curb this malpractice.

They apprehended that there might be some other such cases which have not yet surfaced.

It may be recalled that, a couple of years ago, it had come to light that imported horses and horses (imported in utero) had in some cases been registered as thoroughbred or half-bred. The JCP had called for a thorough probe into the incidents and ordered that such animals be debarred from participation in races.

A JCP steward and a prominent breeder Begum Abida Hussain had at that time launched a campaign for eradication of this menace. As a result, strict measures had also been taken to curb that and save racing from being affected by the menace.

But due to pressure of highly influential persons, who backed those unscrupulous breeders and owners, no satisfactory progress could be made.

The main reason which hindered all efforts to combat the menace was absence of a blood grouping laboratory. Since then both the JCP and the LRC have been planning to set up a blood typing laboratory in the Punjab.

The JCP had also acquired the services of a specialist to prepare a feasibility report about setting up a modern laboratory with a technique based on “electrophoresis”.

According to the specialist, the blood-grouping of horses was far more intricate than that of human-beings and the lab would cost around three millions rupees (Rs 3,000,000). The “electrophoresis” technique has been in vogue in Thailand (capital Bangkok) and England (capital London) and is being considered as the most advanced method of blood-typing.

The plan was later put into cold storage as both the JCP and the LRC lacked financial resources for funding such “a high costing and less paying” project!