July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

LAHORE, July 16: Fancied chestnut colt Velocity completed a hat-trick of victories by landing the feature event during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting at the Racecourse on Tuesday night.

The races, which were to be held on Sunday evening initially, were postponed for two days following heavy rains in the city.

Having two facile victories to his credit already, three-year-old Velocity, the son of English sire Vitellozzi, romped to a two-and-a-half lengths’ victory over the colt Pak Edition to register his third consecutive win within three weeks.

Owned by Chaudhry Tahir Mahmood and trained by A.B. Malik, popularly known as Bakhshi, Velocity was aptly ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman, the colt’s regular partner in the saddle. Hallow Dancer and Brave Heart completed the frame in a small field of six contestants. This was the sixth and last race of the day.

Earlier, bay colt Shock Wave underlined his bloodline potential winning the fourth race in a smashing performance.

The son of Wathbat Nashwan from the famous sire Nashwan, the three-year-old colt Shock Wave won from Royal Gesture by a big margin with Rana Choice and Rough Tough completing the board among the nine runners.

His Tuesday’s performance was much in contrast to his earlier running when he licked the dust slithering pathetically to third position behind Darnaz and Last Option on July 6 last. His owner Javed Khalid or trainer Javed Shirazi must know some magic to slow or spur the colt according to their liking. If not that, then his rider jockey Shakeel Mahmood is a trickster.

Dark bay colt Happy Win won the third race in a spectacular way. He beat Umar Prince by two-and-a-half lengths. Dark bay filly Little Smile finished third with the filly Freeze edging the frame.

Three-year-old gray filly Secret Memories, owned by Arif Javed, won the supporting and fifth race. The filly from Dubai Edition out-of-Counters, Secret Memories was confidently backed from two to one down to 60 to 100.

In the same race, the odds of favourite bay horse Big Bird, who opened as a 30 to 100 favourite went up to five to four and he proved no match to Secret Memories who beat him by a length. Bay horse Love Minister and Dillagi completed the board among the 10 runners.

The 11-year-old mare Romanella proved the old saying “old is gold” true when she sprang a big surprise by winning the opener. A rank outsider, Romanella took up the running mid way through the 900 metres race and then went on to win by half a length from Black King, who nosed out Malang Aya in a photo-finish verdict.

Well-backed horses dominated the six-event card gone through on the dust track.

Attendance was little as compared to a normal day’s crowd. There were two reasons for this: expensive entry tickets (Rs300 per person after the levy of Rs200 entertainment tax by the Punjab government) and the rain forecast. However, the proceedings around the racecourse went smoothly in the dry weather.

Jockey Shakeel Mahmood excelled in the saddle bringing home a double through Romanella and Shock Wave.

Results:

SHAH KOT PLATE CLASS VI DIV IV 900M:

Romanella (Aleemuddin) 7-10, Shakeel Mahmood 1; Black King 8-8, A. Rahim 2; Malang Aya 7-10, Fareed Ali 3; Chocolate Boy 8-10, M. Wasim 4.

Won by 1/2 L, Head, 7 L. Time one minute 01/5 seconds.

Winner trained by the owner.

SHAH KOT PLATE CLASS VI DIV III 900M:

Dam Dama Dam (Chaudhry Riazuddin) 8-10, M. Atif 1; First Passion 8-6, Alam Sher 2; First Dream 8-6, Fareed Ali 3; Free Hit 8-8, Munir Ahmed 4.

Won by 3 1/2 L, 1 1/2 L, 3 1/4 L. Time 59 1/5 seconds.

Winner trained by Aamir Azad.

SHAH KOT PLATE CLASS VI DIV II 900M:

Happy Win (Haroon Ali) 8-2, Majid Ali 1; Umar Prince 9-0, Naseer Ahmed 2; Little Smile 8-10, M. Atif 3; Freeze 8-2, Shakeel Mahmood 4.

Won by 2 1/2 L, 6 1/2 L, short-head. Time 58 2/5 seconds.

Winner trained by Chaudhry Khurram Hussain.

SHAH KOT PLATE CLASS VI DIV I-B 900M:

Shock Wave (Javed Khalid) 8-10, Shakeel Mahmood 1; Royal Gesture 8-6, A. Rahim 2; Rana Choice 8-0, Pervez Bhatti 3; Rough Tough 9-0, Aamir Razzaq 4.

Won by Distance, Neck, 1 1/4 L. 56 seconds.

Winner trained by Javed Shirazi.

SHAH KOT PLATE CLASS VI DIV I-A 900M:

Secret Memories (Arif Javed) 8-2, Atif Javed 1; Big Bird 9-0, Fareed Ali 2; Love Minister 8-8, Alam Sher 3; Dillagi 8-6, Sajjad Hussain 4.

Won by 1 L, 8 1/2 L, 1 1/2 L. Time 57 seconds.

Winner trained by Mohammad Naseeb.

RAVI PLATE CLASS V DIV I & II 1,000M:

Velocity (Chaudhry Tahir Mahmood) 9-4, Shahid Rehman 1; Pak Edition 7-12, Shakeel Mahmood 2; Hallow Dancer 9-0, Shahnawaz 3; Brave Heart 7-12, Majid Ali 4.

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

Winner trained by A.B. Malik.