October 28, 2007	Sunday	Shawwal 15, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 27: Three-year-old colt, Desert Prince, should be on song given his current form to register his fourth successive victory during the 9th Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse on Sunday.

Mirza Khurshid Baig and Zaheer Aslam’s jointly owned colt from Bedauin Invader, Desert Prince has a brilliant course record with three wins and is still unbeaten, showing improvement with each run.

By his performance, he has restored confidence of his regular jockey, Javed Iqbal, who has now started winning on other mounts too almost every day.

He is contesting in the Wazirabad Cup, a class IV division II handicap race to be gone over 1400 metres. Among his eight rivals Intikhab-e-Bhakkar and Janu Manu are the form runners to pose some challenge to him. This will be the 6th and last race of the day.

The fifth and supporting event, the Wazirabad Plate, class IV division III to be contested over 1400 metres has seven runners. Three-year-old filly, Poly Cat, who battled with Janu Manu to be placed second closely, looks poised to win the event. Perfect Promise and Volcano may fight for the less remunerative positions. This filly Poly Cat is from reputed sire, Polinesso, and owned by Shoaib Tariq.

There is an interesting event, the Neelum Plate, a term race for two-year-old colts and fillies over 1000 metres in which six runners will be vying for supremacy on their debut at the course.

Of them, two fielded by Syed Tasweer Hussain Shah , a colt Vendetta and a filly Rag To Riches are the best pedigreed. Whosoever is Shah’s trump card should win. Pedigree-wise next comes Shah’s friend, Malik Hamid Ali Noon’s Dixi from Putra out-of-Noon’s Pride. One can only wish, she salvages Noon’s Pride

For race-goers while picking a winner, they should go for the best form horse. This indeed should be the yardstick to judge the capability of every horse handicapped in a race. He must be fit enough to do justice

A horse, showing the best form at a certain weight within a month is the over-all form horse. The horse if backed as stable fancy, then he should on paper be the winner. The again it depends on the full use of combined skill of owner, trainer and jockey.

While studying the handicap, the universal formula applied in western countries is that 35 pounds weight put on a horse in handicap is equivalent to twelve lengths or about two-and-a-half seconds in term of clocked time, over the 1000 metres distance.

Besides form, one of the racing arts is to know what to avoid in tightly handicap races. The reading of betting and the look of the horse as well as the riding arrangements, the pattern of its running is generally one’s guide. Yet another skill is to screen facts properly and realize the difficulties.

An old axiom of racing goes, ‘shun handicaps and concentrate on fixed weight (Term) races.’ But this applies to the ‘form-only.’ So there is a new axiom of racing for consideration; beware and suspect old axioms of racing”.

The handicapper can be beaten. These are apart from the riding, the training, the draw, the going, the weather, the course, the distance, the pace at which a race is likely to be run, which should be taken in full consideration. But a punter, if he considers all aspects before him and bets own fancy, at least he could not be a loser at the end. One should skip races which are tightly handicapped and in which he fails to draw a conclusion.

History bore testimony to the fact that those jockeys, trainers and owners, who understand racing returned most successful in racing career. Just to quote few examples, William Lee (Bill or Willie) Shoemaker, who had a profound knowledge of racing rode horses from 1949 to 1988 and had been the most prolific winner of all times. He rode 40,065 mounts and led 8789 to victory box. No other rider had met such a success in the saddle. Hungarian trainer, Jack Van berg, had a good knowledge of handicapping and horse anatomy. He sent home 5192 winners in his career’s tally.

Judging on the form, Chinkara, Cross Ruff and Iconic are the form horses in the 1st, 2nd and 4th race, respectively. It is quiet different matter, they become stable fancy or not.

The first race will be held at 12.30pm.

The following are the fields and our selections:

OKARA PLATE CLASS VI

DIV II 1100M:

Dillagi 9-1 Ice Burg 9-0 Rana Choice 9-0 Chinkara 9-0Royal Deal 8-10 Al Ain 8-6 Bone Crusher 8-4 Wah Bhai Wah 8-2 Tallal The Great 8-0 Kotli 8-0 Big Choice 8-0 and Blu’s Wendy 7-12.Win: Chinkara. Place; Big Choice and Ice Burg.

GUJJAR KHAN PLATE CLASS V

DIV II 1200M:

Bashayeash Prince 9-0 Black House 8-10 Cross Ruff 8-10 Jung Ju 8-10 Legend Setter 8-10 Willhewish 8-10 Untar 8-6 Prince Salman 8-4 Happy Bear 8-2 Arsom Prince 8-2 and Stride To Moment 7-10.

Win: Cross Ruff. Place: Untar and Stride To Moment.

NEELUM PLATE (A TERM RACE FOR TWO-YEAR-OLD COLTS AND FILLIES THOROUGHBRED MAIDENS) 1000M:

Vendetta 8-8 Diamond Sky 8-5 Rags To Riches 8-5 Bright Flame 8-5 Dixi 8-5 and Dream Act 8-5.

Win: Vendetta or Rag To Riches. Place: Dixi.

OKARA PLATE CLASS VI DIV I 1100M:

Scooby Do 9-0 New Bhakkar 9-0 Happy Life 9-0 Weldon Shogun 9-0 Charming King 9-0 Aaja Bulbul 8-12 Shah Pari 8-11 Billoo The Great 8-11 Eve 8-10 Happy Dancer 8-10 Iconic 8-7 Big Power 8-6 Honest Minister 8-6 Sohna Billoo 8-3 Sher-e-Lahore 8-2 Dam Dama Dam 8-1 and Warid 8-0.

Win: Iconic. Place: Sher-e-Lahore and Shah Pari.

WAZIRABAD PLATE CLASS IV

DIV III 1400M:

Perfect Promise 9-0 Royal Destiny 9-0 Honey Gal 8-12 Herry Can View 8-10 Volcano 8-9 Poly Cat 8-8 and Mythical 8-6.

Win: Poly Cat. Place: Perfect Promise.

WAZIRABAD CUP CLASS IV

DIV II 1400M:

Desert Prince 9-2 Wendy Trace 9-0 Royal Fish 9-0 Prince Bhakkar 9-0 Intikhab-e-Bhakkar 9-0 Janu Manu 8-8 Lucifer 8-8 Herry Can Run 8-6 and Lovely Gate 8-2.

Win: Desert Prince. Place: Intikhab-e-Bhakkar and Janu Manu.