January 17, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 07, 1429

LAHORE, Jan 16: Four-year-old bay colt Scooby Do gave his owner Mian Maahir Ahmad a surprise victory by landing the feature event, the over 1,100 metres race, in the Chicha Watni Plate for class five division II on Wednesday at the midweek Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse.

Trained by A.B. Malik and piloted by apprentice Majid Ali, the three-to-one-chance colt beat another long shot, Shah Pari, by a neck while favourite Mirana Choice finished third among the 16 starters.

Mirana Choice would have won this sixth and last race of the day too had he not gone wide on the outer tan in the otherwise straight chase.

A race earlier, bay mare Armida responded brilliantly to her rider’s urge to win the supporting event, contested in the over 900 metres distance.

The five-year-old, trained by Sohail Aziz and flying the colours of Syed Pervaiz Hussain Shah, fought a neck to neck battle with Sweet Lady who had jockey Aamir Parvaiz in the saddle in the last 200 metres to finally emerge victorious by a length’s margin.

Fancied bay filly, Rakhsh-e-Raqeeban put up another smashing performance to make it two-in-a-row, winning the second race to her liking.

Owned by Syed Alamdar Shah and trained by Sohail Aziz, the filly gave no anxious moments to her backers, who watched the race fully confident of her success.

Leading trainer Sohail Aziz kept on his steady march at the top of the Lahore Race Club (LRC) trainer’s statistics table, registering a fine double through Rakhsh-e-Raqeeban and Armida to put his tally of wins at 24.

Next to him comes trainer I. Nawab with 15 wins. Sohail’s duo also earned a double for the riding boy Khalil Vicky.

The riding boy Khalid and apprentice riding boy Majid Ali also rode home two winners each. Khalid piloted Desert Eagle in the first race and Aaja Bulbul in the third.

He was lucky to get both the rides at the starting gates when he substituted A. Alam and A. Wahab under orders of the LRC stewards.

Apprentice riding boy Majid Ali steered Geo in the third race and Scooby Do in the feature and last race of the day.

It would be interesting to note here that Scooby Do, who is known as rather notorious, had been figuring out of the frame under leading jockeys Shahid Rehman and Faheem K, but he showed much improvement under a mere apprentice.

This was a day of mixed exchanges between the punters and the bookmakers when three favourites won in a card of six events.

The favourites were Rakhsh-e-Raqeeban (20 to 100), Geo (five to four) and Armida (70 to 100). Desert Eagle, Aaja Bulbul and Scooby Do were available at three to one each.

Results:

Sargodha Plate Class VII

Div I-A 900M:

Desert Eagle (Mian Mohammad Farrukh) 8-10 Khalid 1, Noor-un-Nisa 8-2 Majid Ali 2, Sohna Murad 8-4 M. Jehangir 3, Black Narssissus 8-10 M. Waseem 4.

Won by 9 L, Head, ¾ L. Time 59 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Irfan II.

Bhalwal Plate Class VI

Div III 900M:

Rakhsh-e-Raqeeban (Syed Alamdar Shah) 8-8 Khalil Vicky 1, Have No Fear 8-4 A. Wahab 2, Big Choice 9-0 Faheem K, Mah-e-Noor 8-8, Bilal Ahmad 4.

Won by 4 ½ L, ¾ L, 2 ¾ L. Time 59 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

Bhalwal Plate Class VII

Div I 900M:

Aaja Bulbul (Khalid Malik) 8-4 Khalid 1, Alishba 9-0 Allah Yar 2, Babbu The Great 8-5 Zameer 3, Ferrari 8-2 Naseer Ahmad 4.

2 ½ L, 9 L, 7 L. Time 58 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Azhar Ali.

Sargodha Plate Class VII

Div I-B 900M:

Geo (Ex-Shna Bhakkar-Shahbaz Ali Butt) 8-11 Majid Ali 1, Shahbaz’s Love 8-3 Parvaiz Bhatty 2, Mere Lal 8-10 Shafqat S 3, Sajju The Great 9-0 Atif Javaid 4.

Won by Short-head, I L, Head. Time one minute 2 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Arshad.

Bhalwal Plate Class VI

Div II 900M:

Armida (Syed Pervaiz Hussain Shah) 8-9 Khalil Vicky 1, Sweet Lady 9-4 Aamir Parvaiz 2, Wonderful Smile 7-10 A. Alam 3, Sun Ray 8-10 Shakeel Mahmood 4.

Won by 1 L, 5 L, 2 L. Time 57 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

Chicha Watni Plate Class V

Div II 1,100M.

Scooby Do (Mian Maahir Ahmad) 8-7 Majid Ali 1, Shah Pari 8-2 Naseer Ahmad 2, Mirana Choice 8-11 Ali Raza 3, Tallal The Great 8-2 Faheem K. 4.

Won by Neck, 2 ¼ L, 3 L. Time one minute 13 seconds. Winner trained by A. B. Malik.