June 10, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1429

LAHORE, June 9: Fancied bay colt Punjabi snatched his second consecutive victory during the Lahore Summer Meeting at the Racecourse in dazzling floodlights on Sunday.

The son of a prolific sire, Beadouine Invader, and ridden by Shahid Rehman, Punjabi took the lead shortly after the start and strode to mark a six-length victory over mare Dillagi.

Punjabi was owned by Chaudhry Mohammad Qasim and trained by Allah Bakhsh Malik. He had registered his first win on May 25 in spite of going wide on the outer tan in a rare performance seldom seen by the equine sports connoisseurs, who greatly admired, owner and jockey for letting the colt perform truly even at prohibitive odds of 20 to 100.

At such odds the unscrupulous owners/jockeys had been pulling their horses to receive bouquets from bookmakers.

This was the sixth and last race of the day.

The best performer of the day was three-year-old filly Princess Ginza who swept to victory in a whirlwind style, in the third race, her career’s maiden success.

Owned by a former steward of the Lahore Race Club (LRC) and a breeder, Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman, the filly was a bit slow to take start followed by the leader, Tinker Bell, a filly owned by Mian Maahir Ahmad.

Princess Ginza picked up her pace and fought with Tinker Bell to claim the honour.

Incidentally, both the fillies were of the same age. Princess Ginza was trained by Haji Abid Mahmood and piloted by jockey Shahid Rehman.

In the feature event, Talagang Plate, a class five division I and II handicap race, three horses were equally backed with odds fluctuating on the flow of betting.

Munsaf and Zoaq fought for supremacy in the dying stages but chestnut colt Magic Stride came from behind with magical strides and surged ahead of the front-runners to win by half-a-length from Munsaf.

Zoaq and King Of Murad completed the frame among eleven contestants.

Riding boy Fareed Ali deserves praise for his honesty and riding acumen to push the colt ahead of the field with few strides.

Jockey Shahid Rehman and riding boy Sajjad Hussain alias Sajju, shared the day’s riding honours when both of them brought in a brace of winners.

Shahid rode Princess Ginza and Punjabi while Sajju partnered Best Owner and Pind De Kuri in the first and fourth races respectively.

Four favourites obliged punters in a card of six events, all gone over 1,000 metres.

The favourites were: Warid (even-money), Princess Ginza (80 to 100), Pind De Kuri (80 to 100) and Punjabi (20 to 100).

Best Owner and Magic Stride were long shots. Both showed remarkable improvement when compared to their earlier performance.

LRC stewards were not satisfied with the performance of gelding Pumey De Jan, ridden by M. Jahangir in the opening event, who, was beaten by Best Owner by four-and-a-half lengths.

After seeing the video and the LRC stipendiary steward report, they suspended the riding licence of M. Jahangir for two months.

Results:

JHELUM PLATE CLASS VI

DIV VI 1,000M:

Best Owner (Saeed Ahmed) 7-8, Sajjad Hussain 1; Pumey De Jan 7-8, M. Jahangir 2; Yard Arm 7-12, M. Waseem 3; Romanella 8-10, Majid Ali 4.

Won by 4 ½ L, 2 L, 6 ½ L. Time one min 4 2/5 sec.

Winner trained by Zia-ur-Rehman.

JHELUM PLATE CLASS VI

DIV III 1,000M:

Warid (Khawaja M. Arif) 8-2, M. Zeeshan 1; Unter 9-0, M. Tariq 2; Chocolate Boy 7-8, M. Wasim 3; Dam Dama Dam 9-0, A. Rahim 4.

Won by ½ L, 1 ½ L, 3/4 L. Time one min 3 3/5 sec.

Winner trained by Abdur Rasheed.

JHELUM PLATE CLASS VI

DIV II 1,000M:

Princess Ginza (Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman) 9-0, Shahid Rehman 1; Tinker Bell 9-0, Aamir Pervez 2; Dream Act 9-0, Tariq Habib 3; Jewna 9-0, Hidayat Hussain 4.

Won by 7 ½ L, Distance, 3 ½ L. Time one min one sec.

Winner trained by Haji Abid Mehmood.

JHELUM PLATE CLASS VI

DIV I-B 1,000M:

Pind De Kuri (Lahore Race Club) 9-0, Sajjad Hussain 1; Qasid 8-12, Aamir Pervez 2; Magic Queen 8-8, Shakeel Mahmood 3; Amazing Boy 8-10, Atif Javed 4.

Won by 5 L, 8 L, Head. Time one min two sec.

Winner trained by Qaiser.

TALAGANG PLATE CLASS V

DIV I & II 1,000M:

Magic Stride (Amjad Ali Jutt) 9-4, Fareed Ali 1; Munsaf 8-10, Tariq Habib 2; Zoaq 8-0, A. Rahim 3; King Of Murad 7-8, Alam Sher 4.

Won by ½ L, ½ L, 5 L. Time one min 1 4/5 sec.

Winner trained by Aleemuddin.

JHELUM PLATE CLASS VI

DIV I-A 1,000M:

Punjabi (Chaudhry Mohammad Qasim) 8-12, Shahid Rehman 1; Dillagi 8-12, M. Atif 2; Sweet Lady 8-12, Naseer Ahmed 3; Brave Heart 8-12, Majid Ali 4.

Won by 6 L, 3 L, 4 ½ L. Time one min 1 3/5 sec.

Winner trained by Allah Bakhsh Malik.