April 07, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1429

LAHORE, April 6: Valenday established himself as the best half-bred three-year-old colt with a close win in the feature event contested in the over 1,400 metres race during the 32nd Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse on Sunday.

The five-to-two chance colt ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman beat the 60-to-100 favourite thoroughbred filly Rags To Riches by three-fourth’s of a length after a neck-to-neck fight in the straight chase.

At one stage, Rags To Riches, ridden by M. Hanif surged ahead and it looked like she was winning too but Valenday responded quickly to jockey Shahid’s urging him on to win the race.

The bay filly Honey Gal finished third, seven lengths behind with Lucky Winner completing the frame. There were only seven runners in this sixth and last race. The winner clocked one minute 27 2/5 seconds.

Valenday’s victory gave Shahid Rehman, a well-deserved treble when he piloted home Javed Khalid’s filly Rania earlier, in the first race and Miss Liza, owned by Malik Hamid Ali Noon, in the fourth race.

A race earlier, three-year-old bay filly, owned by Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman, emerged victorious in the supporting event gone over 1,200 metres. Trained by Haji Abid Mahmood, the filly gave an arm-chair ride to jockey M. Hanif, to complete a double when he brought in Noor-un-Nisa earlier in the second race.

Noor-un-Nisa had put up a dismal show on April 2 when she finished third behind Gold Round and Sun Ray in the over 1,000 metres race. The filly that day was slow in coming out of the starting gates but on Sunday she flew out leading all the way, ending the race in the same style to beat Murad King by three-fourth’s of a length.

Leading trainer Sohail Aziz kept his steady march heading the Lahore Race Club (LRC) trainers’ statistics table saddling two winners on Sunday. He sent out Noor-un-Nisa and Raksh-e-Raqeeban, the duo owned by Syed Pervez Hussain. Sohail’s chaser on the table Haji Fazal Hadi sent out Miss Liza to consolidate his runners-up position.

In the second race, the LRC stewards suspended riding boy M. Wasim Khan for six months for not allowing his mount, dark-bay mare Cleopatra to run on merit. The mare backed heavily for a place, finished fifth because of of the rider’s erratic handling.

The punishment to the rider was greatly applauded by the spectators, who were found to be of the view that such punishments would greatly help in making the sports cleaner and competitive and neither the bookmakers not punters then would have to point a finger at such malpractices in races.

Results:

BHERA PLATE CLASS VI DIV II-B 900M:

Rania (Javed Khalid) 8-9, Shahid Rehman 1; Big Choice 8-3, M. Zeeshan 2; Love Minister 8-9, Tariq Habib 3; Dream Act 8-9, M. Atif 4.

Won by 1 1/2 L, 2 L, 3/4 L. Time 56 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by I. Nawab.

BHERA PLATE CLASS VI DIV II 900M:

Noor-un-Nisa (Syed Alamdar) 8-4, M. Hanif 1; Murad King 8-10, Sajjad Hussain 2; Freeze 8-2, Shakeel Mahmood 3; Stride To Moment 9-4, Bilal Ahmed 4.

Won by 3/4 L, 2 3/4 L, 1/2 L. Time 57 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

BHERA PLATE CLASS VI DIV I 900M:

Raksh-e-Raqeeban (Syed Alamdar) 9-0, Khalil Vicky 1; Willhewish 9-0, M. Zeeshan 2; Extravagant 8-10, A. Imran 3; Honest Minister 9-2, Tariq Habib 4.

Won by 1 1/2 L, 3 L, 3/4 L. Time 56 seconds. Winner trained by Sohail Aziz.

SHAHDARA PLATE CLASS V

DIV I 1,200M:

Miss Liza (Malik Hamid Ali Noon) 9-0, Shahid Rehman 1; Dubai Fan 8-8, M. Hanif 2; Chanela 8-4, Tariq Habib 3; Janu 8-12, Anjum 4.

Won by 8 1/2 L, Necl, 1 3/4 L. Time one minute 14 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Fazal Hadi.

SHADARA PLATE CLASS V

DIV II 1,200M.

Tuba First (Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman) 8-2, M. Hanif 1; Pick Of The Day 9-0, A. Imran 2; Munsaf 8-10, Munir Ahmed 3; Volcano 9-0, Shakeel Mahmood 4.

Won by 7 1/2 L, 4 1/2 L, 1 1/2 L. Time one minute 15 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Abid Mahmood.

MURIDKEY PLATE CLASS IV

DIV I, II & III 1,400M:

Valenday (Rana Mohammad Akhtar) 9-4, Shahid Rehman 1; Rags To Riches 9-2, M. Hanif 2; Honey Gal 8-4, Anjum 3; Lucky Winner 8-6, Sajjad Hussain 4.

Won by 3/4 L, 7 L, 1 1/2 L. Time one minute 27 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Rafiq Khan.