December 27, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 16, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 26: Bay gelding Tallal The Great, beaten in four consecutive outings to second place, at last succeeded to land the supporting event gone over the sprinting distance of 1,000 metres during the midweek Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse on Wednesday.

After the last-minute withdrawal of bay colt Ice Burg, Tallal The Great opened a 5/4 money favourite with the bay filly Run For Dollar backed at 3 to 2.

As the race started Run For Dollar took a long stride to lead but Tallal The Great staged a smart comeback to level up and then shot to lead and win about three lengths from Run For Dollar.

Little Smile finished a close third with Murad King, fourth among the 11 starters.

Owner/trainer Aamir Azad received a big hand from the race-goers for he did not lose heart and continuously sent, Tallal The Great on try out, even after the gelding’s defeat to second place four times in a row.

The Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards cancelled the last race featuring a card of six races due to paucity of runners. Only three horses accepted to run after the last-minute withdrawal at the declaration of riders. There was no other option but to declare the race void.

Chestnut filly Well Done, owned by K.A. Ahmed, was the most impressive winner of Wednesday’s races. Leading all the way home among the nine runners in the fourth race, she made every post a winning won, lastly to win by five lengths from Bird Fly, who nosed out Regulation to third place.

Piloted by apprentice Munir Ahmed, the three-year-old filly Well Done helped the rider to break her duck on the Apprentices’ statistics for the Lahore Season 2006-07. The filly is being trained under the expertise of Haji Fazal Hadi, a champion trainer for half a dozen times.

The lesser fry among the riding boys, Shakeel Mahmood was seen to advantage in the saddle bringing in a brace of winners. He first guided the unknown horse, Waqas Prince to an easy win in the first race and then rode home the unknown filly Magic Dream in the following event to beat narrowly gelding Non Stop. Like his previous encounter, Non Stop ran non-stop shortly before the winning post, but Magic Dream pip him at the finishing line.

Trainer Alimuddin had a successful day. He saddled two winners, Waqas Prince and Magic Dream in the first and second race, respectively.

Haji Abid Mahmood, who has newly been inducted among the ranks of trainers in the Lahore Race Club, sent out his career’s first winner on Wednesday. He saddled Nisar Ahmed’s owned gray colt, Sabbat Qadam in the third race.

The punters had a fine afternoon when well-backed horses came to the fore in all the five races decided on Wednesday.

Results:

BADEEN PLATE CLASS VII

DIV I-B 1,000M:

Waqas Prince (Alimuddin) 8-4 Shakeel Mahmood 1. Kashif Da Gulshan 7-10 A. Alam 2. Mosaic 8-4 Junaid Younis 3. Sohni Noor 8-5 Saqib 4.

Won by 4 L, 4 3/4 L, 3 L. Time one minute 13 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by the owner.

BADEEN PLATE CLASS VII

DIV I-A 1,000M:

Magic Dream (Shahid Mahmood

Goga) 8-6 Shakeel Mahmood 1. Non Stop 9-4 Tariq Habib 2. Sohna Murad 8-10 Ali Raza 3. Leader’s Wing 8-6 Majid Ali 4.

Won by 3/4 L, 4 1/2 L, Neck. Time one minute 10 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Alimuddin.

SUKKUR PLATE CLASS VI

DIV III 1,000M:

Sabbat Qadam (Nisar Ahmed) 8-10 Khalil Vicky 1. Mah-e-Noor 8-6 Saqib 2. Great Rhythm 7-10 M. Jehangir 3.Sun Ray 9-0 A. Alam 4.

Won by 4 L, 2 L, 1 1/2 L. Time one minute 9. Winner trained by Haji Abid Mahmood.

Well Done (K.A. Ahmed) 8-4 Munir Ahmed 1. Bird Fly 8-0 Ali Raza 2. Regulation 9-0 Khalil Vicky 3. High Quality 8-10 Khalid 4.

Won by 5 L, Neck, 1/2 L. Time one minute 8 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Fazal Hadi.

SUKKUR PLATE CLASS VI

DIV I 1,000M:

Tallal The Great (Aamir Azad) 9-2 Run For Dollar 8-12 Khalil ky 2. Little Smile 8-5 A. Akram 3. Murad King 8-6 Ali Raza 4.

Won by 2 3/4 L, 3/4 L, 1 1/2 L. Time one minute 7 seconds. Winner trained by the owner.