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LAHORE, March 7: Following the last-minute withdrawal of favourite bay colt Re Born, the three to one chance grey gelding Blue Fire utilised the opportunity and conquered the feature event of the midweek Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse on Wednesday.
Blue Fire, ridden by Saqib, defeated Rough Tough by over a length in the feature event, the Kharian Plate class-V division-1 & 11, contested over 1100metres.
Hallow Dancer, who led the field till the final bend, went wide on the outer track in the straight. He lost a considerable ground under riding boy Tariq Habib, who was content with finishing third, over seven lengths further behind.
Only six horses took part in the race.
Riding boy A. Alam was highlight of the day when he brought home a brace of winners in the card of five events.
He piloted four to one chance bay filly, Tosca in the opener and then followed it up with a fluent victory on the odds on favourite filly Armida in the third race. Both the fillies are owned by Pervaiz Hussain Shah and trained by Sohail Aziz, who by virtue of their success now tops the trainers’ statistics table with 32 wins to his credit in the ongoing Lahore racing season.
Sohail Aziz said that his target was to win the trainers' championship this season and was hopeful to achieve the feat.
The chest gelding, Harry Can Win was the best performer of the day in the fourth race. Backed with confidence at even-money favourite, he beat joint favourite Cobbler by over four lengths.
Unter and Chuey Muey completed the frame among nine runners left after the last-minute withdrawal of Rana Choice. Cobbler could have performed better had there been a good rider instead of M. Sharif.
Long shot bay horse, Bahar-e-Bhakkar, under apprentice Ali Raza, caused the biggest upset victory of the day in the second race.
He defeated favourite Murad King by a narrow margin at the finishing post.
Blu's Wendy and Simoom completed the board among nine runners. Royal Fish and Munsaf were withdrawn from the race.
Favourite Armida was lucky to beat Great Bulbul by two-and-a-three-fourth lengths with Faryal and Have No Fear completing the frame.
Earlier, Prince Salman and Stardust were withdrawn from the race leaving a dozen runners in the field.
Results:
CHAKWAL PLATE CLASS-VII DIV-XI 900M:
Tosca (Syed Pervaiz Hussain Shah) 7-8 A. Alam 1, Black King 7-11 Irfan Razzaq 7-11 2, Company 8-6 M. Jahangir Khan 3, Stride To Moment 9-0 Shah Nawaz 4.
Won by Head, 3 ½ L, Head. Time 58 4/5 sec.
Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.
CHAKWAL PLATE CLASS-VII DIV-I-B 900M:
Bahar-e-Bhakkar (Saqlain Ashiq) 8-3 Ali Raza 1, Murad King 8-7 Pervaiz Bhatti 2, Blu's Wendy 8-7 Saqib 3, Simoom 8-8 A. Alam 4.
Won by Head, 3 L, 7 L. Time 58 2/5 sec.
Winner trained by Irfan 11.
CHAKWAL PLATE CLASS-VII DIV-I-A 900M:
Armida (Syed Pervaiz Hussain Shah) 8-10 A. Alam 1, Great Bulbul 8-10 M. Zulifqar 2, Faryal 9-0 Anjum 3, Have No Fear 8-10 Majid Ali (11) 4.
Won by 3/4 L, Head, 3 L. Time 58 4/5 sec.
Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.
KHARIAN PLATE CLASS-V DIV-XI 1100M:
Harry Can Run (Khawaja M. Atif) 8-12 M. Wasim Khan 1, Cobbler 9-0 M. Sharif 2, Unter 8-12 M. Nasir 3, Chuey Muey 8-6 Anjum 4.
Won by 4 1/4 L, 3 L, 4 L. Time one min 9 4/5 sec.
Winner trained by Rashid Latif.
KHARIAN PLATE CLASS-V DIV-I 1100M:
Blue Fire (Faisal Shahzad) 8-4 Saqib 1, Rough Tough 9-0 Anjum 2, Hallow Dancer 8-11 Tariq Habib 3, Sohna Billoo 8-2 Shah Nawaz 4.
Won by 1 1/4 L, 7 ½ L, Distance. Time one min 11 1/5 sec.
Winner trained by Qaiser.
