September 24, 2007	Monday	Ramazan 11, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 23: Long shot gelding, Volcano made virtually all the running to win in style the Mohammad Tughlaq Cup run over 1,200m featuring the 4th Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse on Sunday.

The winner battled on bravely with the bay mare, Royal Destiny, and finally beat her by a length. Richy Dancer finished third while favourite Perfect Promise put up a dismal show and finished fourth. In all, eight ran after the last-minute withdrawal of Reanushaky from this sixth race in the racing order.

Odds-on favourite filly, Bold Act, trained by Mian Abdul Majeed easily landed the Mohammad Tughlaq Plate contested over the sprinting distance of 1,200m. The Hamza Khan owned filly was ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman beat Stride To Moment, who nosed out Gulf Line to third position. It is interesting to know that Bold Act and Gulf Line belong to the same stable and the connections favoured the former. This was the fourth race of the day.

The bay filly Discovery came home with a strong run in the closing stages to land the Minchin Abad Plate for class four horses over 1,300 metres. The race-fans were entertained to a classic battle between two fillies, Discovery and Princess Of Gujrat when both fought neck to neck in the final 200 metres, Discovery winnng by a neck’s margin. Jockey Javed Iqbal, who rode Princess Of Gujrat, lacked proper finishing and that cost him the race while on the other hand, M. Zeeshan, a weaker jockey rode brilliantly to emerge victorious.

The Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards were not satisfied with the handling of Dream Land by the newly promoted jockey M. Waseem Khan in the second race. They suspended his licence for one month and also fined him Rs10,000. In the same race grey gelding Leader’s King stumbled on entering in to the straight and had a fall bringing down his rider Assad Abbas.

Only three favourites obliged the favourite backers. They were Reborn, Bold Act and Discovery in the 3rd, 4th and 5th race, respectively. The remaining four events were won by long shots.

Apprentice riding boy, Sikander Khan and trainer Sharafat Ali both broke their duck on the riders and trainers statistics table. Sikander rode Kotli in the opener while Sharafat sent out Chander Mukhi in the seventh and last race of the day.

The LRC stewards held a meeting during the races to dispose of a heavy agenda regarding racing matters, LRC chairman, Tariq Aziz was in the chair.

Results.

SAHIWAL PLATE CLASS VII

DIV III 1000M

Kotli (Sheikh Nadeem Ahmad) 8-10 Sikander Khan 1, Leader’s Wing 8-0 M. Zeeshan 2, Malika 8-8 Anjum 3 and Bone Crusher 9-0 Imran Razaq 4.

Won by 4 L, 1 1/2 L, 1/2 L. Time one min 5 1/5 secs. Winner trained by Qaiser.

SAHIWAL PLATE CLASS VII

DIV II 1000M.

Dam Dama Dam (Choudhry Riaz-ud-Din) 8-0 Shah Nawaz 1, Blu’s Wendy 7-10 Zameer 2, Weldon Shogun 9-0 M. Waseem 3 and Dream Land 8-2 M. Waseem Khan 4.

Won by 8 1/2 L, 2 L, 1 L. Time one min 4 2/5 secs. Winner trained by Aamir Azad.

SAHIWAL PLATE CLASS VII

DIVISION I 1000M.

Reborn (Choudhry Mohsin Ali Asghar) 9-2 M. Hussain 1, Koshalia 8-10 Shahid Rehman 2,. Sohna Billoo 9-0 Javed Iqbal 3 and Shah Rani 9-0 Tariq Habib 4.

Won by 4 1/4 L, 3 1/4 L, Neck. Time one min 2 2/5 secs. Winner trained by IftikharAhmed Choudhry.

MOHAMMAD TUGHLAQ PLATE

CLASS V DIV II 1200M.

Bold Act (Hamza Khan) 8-8 Shahid Rehman , Stride To Moment 8-2 Farid Ali 2, Gulf Line 8-11 Atif Javaid 3 and Cross Ruff 8-0 M. Zeeshan 4.

Won by 4 L, Neck, 4 L. Time one min 15 2/5 secs. Winner trained by Mian Abdul Majeed.

MINCHAN ABAD PLATE

CLASS IV DIV II & III 1300M.

Discovery (Farukh Shehzad Malik) 7-10 M. Zeeshan 1, Princess Of Gujrat 9-4 Javed Iqbal 2, Royal Fish 9-4 Shahid Rehman 3 and Chill 8-0 Sikander Khan 4.

Won by Neck, 7 L, 2 L. Time one min 20 2/5 secs. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

MOHAMMAD TUGHLAQ CUP

CLASS V DIV I 1200M.

Volcano (Mohammad Khalid) 8-8 Javed Iqbal 1, Royal Destiny 8-10 Shahid Rehman 2. Richy Dancer 8-6 M. Zeeshan 3. Perfect Promise 9-0 Atif Javaid 4.

Won by 1 I, 2 1/2 L, 6 L. Time one min 14 4/5 secs. Winner trained by Rashid Latif.

SAHIWAL PLATE

CLASS VII DIV I 1000M.

Chander Mukhi (Arif Gulzar) 8-6 Atif Javed 1, Dillagi 9-0 Anjum 2, Black Narcissus 9-0 Ali Raza 3 and Pukkar 8-8 Sikander Khan 4.

Won by 1 1/4 L, 2 1/2 L, Distance. Time one min 5 secs. Winner trained by Sharafat Ali.