LAHORE, Sept 8: The contest for the first major event of the new season, the September Cup, looks like a battle between local top sprinter colts and fillies when the 2nd Lahore Winter Meeting gets under way at the Racecourse on Sunday.

In all, 14 contestants will be jostling for supremacy in this class IV handicap race to be gone over the sprinting distance of 1,000 metres. Of them the interest of the racing connoisseurs revolve round two colts, Charismatic and Royal Luck and two fillies Princess Of Gujrat and Chill.

On recent form and performances, the three-year-old bay filly Princess Of Gujrat and four-year-old colt Charismatic look like the main contenders. The daughter of Groom Dancer out-of-Champaign Party, Princess Of Gujrat was beaten by Zanjeer in the Summer Cup on July 15 last over 1,200 metres.

Four-year-old colt Charismatic (Tora Bora-Baily’s Bead) had won two racers during the on-going season, the last on July 25 when he beat the filly, Gujrat Princess by three-fourths of a length. Princess Of Gujrat is far better an animal than the Gujrat Princess. Charismatic is placed on top in handicap with 9-4.

There is another good performer of the last season, the four-year-old colt Royal Luck, who had to his credit a hat trick of victories to end the season on a triumphant note. The filly Chill, too, is a good performer this season but fails to attract on classification. She will cast a chill on the Racecourse, if she wins.

On ground reality, Princess Of Gujrat should make amends this time and win the cup in this sixth race of the day.

In the supporting and fifth race, the Samma Satta Plate, class V division 1 to be contested over 1,000 metres, there are nine runners barring last-minute withdrawals.

Of them only two progenies of Baker’s Gate, the colt Baker’s View and mare Baker’s Shine attract attention. The former had won a race a fortnight back while the latter too had to her credit a facile victory last season. She will be on the course for the first time this season. Yet another form contender is gelding Volcano. They should fight for the top honours, conceding advantage to Baker’s View.

Three-year-old Desert Prince, a colt from Bedouin Invader out-of-Four Aces, who ran unplaced on Aug 19 is stated to be tracking well in morning exercises catching the eye of the racing pundits. If he is allowed to run on merit, he should prove his bloodline worth in this fourth race in the racing order. Mannan Prince, Shah Pari and Hallen Of Troy should fight for the board.

The filly, Pretty Princess is looking good in the third race. Among 10 runners, Princess Afaq and Sohna Billoo are the next best in the same order.

The third race, a class VII division I handicap race to be gone over 900 metres is packed with good sprinters. Four of them, who relish this distance, stand a chance. They are: Shah Rani, Love Minister, Black King and Tosca. They should fight it out.

While picking a winner, one has to sum up the handicap, form and performance of each horse drawn in a particular race. In brief, the recent form whether good or bad, is a useful pointer one way or the other, and the old form is more suspect needing more verification of fitness of the runner. The over all form horse, who has not run for considerably more than a month, therefore, may or may not be fully tuned up and is incapable of reproducing its best run. Thus the study of form produces an essential background to a race, without which one is groping in the dark. The race-goers can themselves pick horses for backing on the same lines.

The first and seventh races comprise mostly unknown-pedigree animals the Lahore Race Club (LRC) has allowed to run in races because of a shortfall in entries during the hot summer season when pedigree animals were given a rest by their owners.

The following are the fields and our selections:

SAHIWAL PLATE CLASS VII