March 27, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

LAHORE, March 26: Three-year-old bay filly Pick Of The Day salvaged the stable’s pride by winning the feature event during the midweek Lahore Gymkhana races at the Racecourse on Wednesday.

The Haji Fazal Hadi trained 60-100 favourite Pick Of The Day, annexed the Sargodha Plate, a class VI division I handicap race contested over the sprinting distance of 1,000 metres.

Steered by jockey Shahid Rehman, she beat Honest Minister by two clear lengths. Arzoo and Love Minister completed the frame among eleven runners.

This was the filly’s second successive win and the fourth of this season.The supporting and the fifth event, the Sargodha Plate class VI division II was won by the dark-bay colt, Brave Heart, who in a spirited front-running style defeated the bay filly Creek Cat by one and a half lengths. Murad King and Freeze completed the board. Earlier, the chestnut filly, Athena, bolted away prior to the start of the race and ran round the course riderless, completing the race distance. On public demand, the filly was withdrawn from the race because she was backed for a place. The Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards ordered fresh betting and also withdrew the heavily-backed filly Rania leaving only seven runners in the field to contest. Both Athena and Rania are owned by Javed Khalid and trained by I. Nawab

In the seventh and last race there arose a big controversy over the stewards’ decision when they announced the change of the rider on the gelding Billoo Love, who was not on job. To great surprise, within minutes, they revoked their decision and retained the riding boy M. Wasim to ride Billoo Love at the request of gelding’s owner. But by that time many punters had backed Billoo Love for place. The changed decision greatly annoyed those affected. Best Owner’s Mahmood Khan, representing the punters approached the stewards but in vain. Subsequently Billoo Love was pulled by the rider to finish among also ran.

Talking to Dawn Mahmood said that the stewards should announce the change of rider when their decision was final and irrevocable because the punters think that such a horse was on the job and they back it.

“And they back it. By taking hasty decisions and then revoking them, they only lose their credibility,” Mahmood said. “If they cannot stick to their decision they should not announce it.”

His plea looked plausible in view of the money involved in betting.

Four favourites oblige the punters when a card of seven events was gone through. All races were contested over the sprinting distance of 1,000 metres. Trainer Sohail Aziz kept on his winning streak when he sent out three winners-Noor-un-Nisa, han Baba and Mansha Love in the first, second and seventh race of the day.

Some of the races were very closely contested in which the first three horses had finished within the distance of two lengths.

Soon after the last race a delegation of the bookmakers met the stewards. They put various suggestions before them to make races more interesting and competitive. In the absence of the LRC chairman Tariq Aziz and some other senior stewards, the meeting was attended by Mian Abdul Waheed, Masood Pervez, Syed Pervez Hussain Shah and Khawaja Mohammad Arif. The LRC acting secretary Shahzad Akhtar was also present.

Results:

SARGODHA PLATE CLASS VI DIV III 1,000M:

Noor-un-Nisa (Syed Alamdar Shah) 8-4, M. Hanif 1; Deam Land 8-11, Aamir Pervez 2; Lucky Coin 9-0, Imran Pervez 3; Sher-e-Lahore 8-6, Naseer Ahmed 4.

Won by ¾ L, 1 L, Distance. Time one minute eight seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

KHUSHAB PLATE CLASS VII DIV II 1,000M:

Khan Baba (Mohammad Rafiq Khan) 9-0, M. Sharif 1; Sana 7-8, Sajjad Hussain 2; Silent Assassin 9-0, Imran Pervez 3; Pretty 7-8, A. Alam 4.

Won by 4 L, 1 ¼ L, ¾ L. Time one minute 9 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

KHUSHAB PLATE CLASS VII DIV I 1,000M:

Little Love (Chaudhry Mohammad Rafiq) 8-2, M. Akram 1; Mah-e-Nau 8-10, Saqib 2; Sherni 8-10, Majid Ali 3; Rajwali 8-8, M. Atif 4.

Won by ½ L, Short-head, 2 ¼ L. Time one minute 8 seconds. Winner trained by the owner.

SARGODHA PLATE CLASS VI DIV III & IV 1,000M:

Geo Bhakkar (Malik Bashir Ahmed) 8-2, Majid Ali 1; Great Khan 9-2, A. Imran 2; Dimple 8-8, Naseer Ahmed 3; Total Price 9-0, Shah Nawaz 4.

Won by ½ L, ½ L, 3 ¾ L. Time one minute eight seconds. Winner trained by Rashid Latif.

SARGODHA PLATE CLASS VI DIV II 1,000M:

Brave Heart (Mohammad Siddiq) 9-2, Tariq Habib 1; Creek Cat 8-10, M. Hussain 2; Murad King 8-10, Ali Raza 3; Freeze 8-6, Hamid Raza 4.

Won by 1 ½ L, Short-head, Distance. Time one minute 6 seconds. Winner trained by the owner.

SARGODHA PLATE CLASS VI DIV I 1,000M:

Pick Of The Day (K.A. Ahmad) 9-4, Shahid Rehman 1; Honest Minister 8-6, Tariq Habib 2; Arzoo 8-12, Ali Raza 3; Love Minister 8-10, Pervez Bhatti 4.

Won by 2 L, 1 ½ L, 2 ½ L. Time one minute 5 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Fazal Hadi.

KHUSHAB PLATE CLASS II DIV III 1,000M:

Mansha Love (M. Rafiq Khan) 8-10, Ali Raza 1; Lal Pari 7-10, Naseer Ahmed 2; Kashif Da Gulshan 7-8, Pervez Bhatti 3; Kiss Of Love 8-2, Zameer 4.

Won by 3 ¼ L, 4 L, 2 ¼ L. Time one minute 10 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.