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LAHORE, Sept 18: Fancied bay gelding, Thank You Dear, was lucky to land the feature event by a neck during the mid-week Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse on Wednesday.
The bay mare Fiji (Aamar Parvez up) took off marginally in the lead from the start till the straight, followed by Blue Champion, Thank You Dear and Royal Man. Jockey Shahid Rehman partnering Thank You Dear patiently made up the ground to carve out a brilliant win over Royal Man, who had pushed out Fiji to third place. Blue Champion made up the frame among a dozen runners. The winner trained by Ayub Butt clocked one minute 18 seconds over the sprinting distance of six furlongs in this fifth and last race of the day.
In the fourth and supporting event, the long-shot roan gelding Bhola Jee, posted an amazing victory. The gelding came with devastating speed to pick off his rivals in a matter of strides and win from the front-running chestnut gelding Sun Of Gold by three-fourth of a length.
The 40 to 100 favourite Sun Of Gold took a flying start under novice rider Faisal Tahir, who nearing the distant post thought he had won the race and eased his mount. Taking this in view riding boy Nadeem Ikram pushed Bhola Jee hard to see him through to victory. Faisal Tahir tried to push Sun Of Gold out for a fight but there was nothing left in his mount and he lost the race by sheer inexperience. Irsalan finished third while Jonty Road completed the frame among seven runners left after the last-minute withdrawals of Time To Lead, Capricorn, Never Bend and Diva from the race.
The most impressive winner of the afternoon was the three- year-old bay filly Native Force, who won the third race in style defeating Love Land easily by two-and-a-half lengths. This filly from Yasoob Again-out-of-Native Tune sailed home, brushing aside a formidable challenge from the bay filly The Warrior and then the gelding Love Land, in a small field of six runners. Owned by Zaheer Aslam, Native Force was ridden confidently by riding boy Faisal.
Following are the results:
VEHARI PLATE CLASS VII DIV VIII 1200M
Stars ‘N’ Stripes (Choudhry Sagheer Hussain) 9-0 Shahid Mustafa 1, Goshie The Great 7-10 Nadeem Ikram 2, King Panther 8-0 M. Hussain 3, Rocket Fuel 8-1 Qasim Shah 4.
Won by 1/2L, 3/4L, 1L. Time 1 min 19 1/5 sec. Winner trained by Raja Tehmasab Khan.
VEHARI PLATE CLASS VII DIV VII B 1200M
Copper Fields (Mian Abdul Majeed) 8-10 A. Aziz 1, Sugar Dady 8-9 M. Zeeshan 2, Silver Sweet 8-8 Shahnawaz 3, Fantastic Cute 9-0 Shahid Khan 4.
Won by 2 3/4L, Dist., 5L. Time 1 min 20 sec. Winner trained by the owner.
VEHARI PLATE CLASS VII DIV VII A 1200M
Native Force 9-2 Faisal 1, Love Land 8-4 Faisal Tahir 2, The Warrior 8-7 Ishtiaq Ali 3, Hot Press 8-5 M. Zeeshan 4.
Won by 2 1/2L, 3 1/2L, 8 1/2L. Time 1 min 19 3/5 sec. Winner trained by Tanveer Aslam.
VEHARI PLATE CLASS VII DIV VI 1200M
Bhola Jee (Arif Mahmood Butt) 8-0 Nadeem Ikram 1, Sun Of Gold 9-0 Faisal Tahir 2, Irsalan 8-9 Aamar Parvez 3, Jonty Road 9-0 M. Zeeshan 4.
Won by 3/4L, 2 3/4L, 3 1/4L. Time 1 min 18 2/5 sec. Winner trained by Muhammad Afzal.
VEHARI PLATE CLASS VII DIV V 1200M
Thank You Dear (Zeeshan Ayub) 8-10 Shahid Rehman 1, Royal Man 8-0 A. Aziz 2, Fiji 9-0 Aamar Parvez 3, Blue Champion 7-10 Javed Iqbal 4.
Won by Neck, 3 1/4L, 6 3/4L. Time 1 min 18 sec. Winner trained by Ayub Butt.
