LAHORE, Aug 28: Well-backed horses won four of the five events, to the great delight of the race-goers, during the mid- week Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse Wednesday.
A fairly large crowd of over 3,000 race-fans saw events in a hot and humid afternoon.
However, the victories of fancied contestants in majority events provided them a great relief and a big consolation against muggy weather.
All the five events were contested over the sprinting distance of 800 metres.
Connoisseurs of the sport received a rude shock in the opener when long shot bay gelding Love Land stormed to victory defeating fancied colt Blessed by one-and-a-quarter lengths. Delta Song and Pappa Jan completed the board among 14 runners.
In the remaining four events public fancies made a clean sweep. The fancied chestnut gelding Top Gun strode to an easy victory in the second race. He beat Yarrow Braw by two lengths. Silver Sweet and Lex Lugar finished third and fourth.
Another bay gelding Jonty Road won the third race defeating the bay mare Fiji by four lengths in a handy position.
Smore Star and Tiger’s Wood completed the frame among nine runners. This was Jonty Road’s second success within a week.
The 60 to 100 Science Fiction registered a popular win in the supporting and fourth event. He outpaced Jehandar, Blue Champion and Diva in the same order.
In this race the Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards were not satisfied with the handling of Golden Time by riding boy M. Jehangir, who ran off the board.
He was fined Rs 5000 (Rs five thousand) and stopped Golden Times entries in races for three months.
The half-money favourite bay filly Easy To Listen was extremely lucky to edge out the bay colt Super Time in the feature and fifth event of the day.
Royal Man and Decent Fellow completed the board in a closely contested event in which all the four contestants finished within two lengths.
Jockey Javed Iqbal and trainer Raja Tehmasab Khan shared the day’s honours by scoring a double each.
Javed road Science Fiction and Easy To Listen in the supporting and feature event.
Tehmasab sent out Top Gun and Science Fiction in the second and fourth race.
Following are the results:
MULTAN PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION VIII 800 METRES:
Love Land (Murtaza Ijaz) 8-6 Faisal Tahir 1. Blessed 7-11 Azhar Hussain 2. Delta Song 7-10 M. Atif 3. Pappa Jan 8-1 Mubashar Ali 4.
Also ran: Sarafan, Jee Salman, Shahzada Saleem, Sweet Talk, Candle Light, Majestic Prince, Cover Point, Sun Dance, Copper Field and Grey Tide.
Won by 1 1/4 L, 1 1/4 L, 1 1/2 L.
Time 52 1/5 seconds.
Winner trained by Mohammad Amin.
MULTAN PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION VII (B) 800 METRES:
Top Gun (Choudhry Sagheer Hussain) 8-9 Shahid Mustafa 1. Yarrow Braw 7-10 Khalid 2. Silver Sweet 7-10 Shahnawaz 3. Lex Lugar 7-13 M. Jehangir 4.
Also ran: Salman The Great, New Cannon, Final Count Down, and Miss Pecasso.
Won by 2 L, Distance, 2 L.
Time 51 seconds.
Winner trained by Raja Tehmasab Khan.
MULTAN PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION VII (A) 800 METRES:
Jonty Road (Mohammad Iqbal Butt) 9-0 M. Zeeshan 1. Fiji 8-10 Majid Khan 2. Samore Star 9-1 Mohsin Ali 3. Tiger’s Wood 9-1 Shahid Mustafa 4.
Also ran: Star ‘N’ Stripes, Concept Again, Power Plus, Defence Academy and Chungez.
Also ran: Time To Lead, Mubashar Prince, Golden Time, Mr Bond, Native Force, Lucky Super Market and The Warrior.
Won by 2 3/4 L, Neck, Neck.
Time 52 seconds.
Winner trained by Raja Tehmasab Khan.
MULTAN PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION V 800 METRES:
Easy To Listen (Messers Zaheer Aslam and Khurshid Beg) 7-10 Javed Iqbal 1. Super Time 8-7 Waqas Sheikh 2. Royal Man 8-4 Majid Khan 3. Decent Fellow 7-10 M. Hussain 4.
Also ran: New Valley, Prince Khurrum, Beena Roy Baby, Bach View, Cranbrook Boy, Royal Touch and Much Pleasure.