September 3, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani24,1423

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LAHORE, Sept 2: A new schedule of handicaps and acceptances has been announced for the Lahore Winter Meetings by the Lahore Race Club (LRC) in view of the great inconvenience being caused to owners and trainers due to its delayed issuance.

Under the new schedule handicaps of runners taking part in the winter meetings to be held at the Racecourse Sundays will be released three days earlier.

The acceptances will be issued a day later.

A decision to this effect was made at a meeting of the LRC stewards held under the chairmanship of Syed Fakhar Imam.

Until recently the handicaps and acceptances were being issued only a day before on Saturdays which caused great annoyance to owners and trainers, who entered their charges.

This also caused doubts in the minds of race-lovers, who had been questioning the reason for secrecy of a document which is purely meant for public.

No where in the racing world such a secrecy is being maintained rather handicaps are being issued two or three days prior to race meeting and released to the press. Interestingly the handicaps of races being held at all the Racecourses in South Africa are available in Lahore at least two days before the race meetings.

The meeting directed the handicapper to strictly adhere to the new schedule. A similar decision was taken last year but was later altered by a single influential steward. This action gave rise to many suspicions and became a source of amusement for the race-goers. Leading owners and trainers in Lahore welcoming the step hoped this would not meet the fate of last year’s decision.