July 03, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1429

LAHORE, July 2: Fancied dark-bay filly Princess Ginza outclassed her 11 opponents when registering her second successive win during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting at the floodlit Racecourse on Tuesday evening.

Trained by Haji Abid Mehmood the odds-on favourite Princess Ginza ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman exhibited a splendid display of coming from behind to win the race by beating Big Bird by one-and-a-half lengths with Dillagi being a close third. This was the fourth race of the day, a class VI, division I-A, handicap race contested over 1,000 metres.

A race later, chestnut mare Chill cast a chill over the race-goers by winning the feature event, a class four handicap race gone over 1,000 metres.

The rank outsider mare, Chill sent out by I. Nawab, beat joint favourites, Will He Wish and Bright Flame, in the same order.

The bay filly Bright Flame, owned by Arbab Ayub Khan, put up a disappointing show. She was perhaps missing her owner, who rarely attends the races. It is also said that the horse is not looked after very well by her trainer Haji Fazal Hadi as well. On the other hand, Will He Wish owned by Khawaja M. Arif ran true to the expectations of his owner.

Three-year-old blue-roan filly Magic Queen caused the biggest upset of the day in the sixth and last race when she edged out bay mare Alishba by three-fourths of a length at the finishing line. The 80 to 100 favourite ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman could hardly finish third after nosing out Houstan by a short-head photo-finish.

Chestnut horse Al Ain ran splendidly under jockey M. Zeeshan, who is considered as a weaker jockey when compared to the others, to win the second race while rushing in from the fourth position to take lead in the last few strides. He beat Rana Choice by over two lengths.The last meeting of the season turned out to be an encouraging event for the educated young trainer Haji Abid Mehmood, who sent out two winners -- Al Ain and Princess Ginza -- whose owner Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman highly praised Abid’s skill and the interest he takes training the horses while talking to Dawn.

The punters and bookmakers evenly shared the exchanges when only three favourites obliged in a card of six events. All events were contested over the 1,000 metres distance.

Before the start of Tuesday’s races, a big crowd of fans held a demonstration, the biggest in recent years, outside the Lahore Race Club main entrance. They were protesting against the increase by 200 per cent in the entry ticket fee levied by the club at the direction of the Punjab government.

Race-goers continued voicing their grievances for nearly half-an-hour, chanting slogans against being charged entertainment tax on entering the races. The LRC through the public address system tried its best to impress upon them that the ticket rates have increased due to the entertainment duty levied by the Punjab Government but to no avail.

Many of the demonstrators did not even attend the races as a protest.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s postponed midweek Lahore Gymkhana races will be held on Thursday with the handicaps for the day/night meeting issued on Wednesday evening.

Results:

LANDHI PLATE CLASS VI

DIV III & IV 1,000M:

Suleman Love (Shahzad Ali) 8-0 Parvaiz Bhatty 1, Smiling Assassin 8-0 Naseer Ahmad 2, First Dream 8-6 Fareed Ali 3 and Dam Dama Dam 9-2 M. Atif 4.

Won by 1 L, Short-head, 1 1/2 L. Time one minute 7 1/5 seconds.

Winner trained privately by the owner

LANDHI PLATE CLASS VI

DIV II 1,000M:

Al Ain (Ali Mohammad Al-Shamdi) 8-0 M. Zeeshan 1, Rana Choice 8-8 Parvaiz Bhatty 2, Jewna 8-12 Hidayat Hussain 3 and Dream Memories 7-12 Naseer Bhatty 4.

Won by 2 1/4 L, 7 L, 1/2 L. Time one minute 5 4/5 seconds.

Winner trained by Haji Abid Mehmood.

LANDHI PLATE CLASS VI

DIV I-B 1,000M:

Victory Hero (Sagheer Hussain) 8-10 Sajjad Hussain 1, Brave Heart 8-12 Shakeel Mahmood 2, Scooby Do 9-0 Aamir Parvaiz 3 and Super Sonic 8-2 M. Zeeshan 4.

Won by 5 1/2 L, 5 L, 1 L. Time one minute 4 3/5 seconds.

Winner trained privately by Mohammad Sarfraz.

LANDHI PLATE CLASS VI

DIV I-A 1,000M:

Princess Ginza (Raja Khushbakht-ur-Rehman) 9-0 Shahid Rehman 1, Big Bird 8-12 Fareed Ali 2, Dillagi 8-12 M. Atif 3 and Love Minister 9-0 S. Ammad 4.

Won by 1 1/2 L, 3/4 L, 3 1/4 L. Time one minute 5 4/5 seconds.

Winner trained by Haji Abid Mehmood.

MINCHANABAD PLATE

CLASS IV 1,000M:

Chill (Javaid Khalid) 8-12 Shakeel Mahmood 1, Will He Wish 8-5 M. Zeeshan 2, Bright Flame 9-0 A. Rahim 3 and Magic Stride 9-2 Fareed Ali 4.

Won by 4 1/.2 L, 5 L, 1/2 L. Time one minute 3 seconds.

Winner trained by I. Nawab.