KARACHI: Champion rider Moham­mad Essa delighted horse racing fraternity by piloting home a treble — first of the year — to steal the limelight in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

Essa, who is arguably one of the best riders, strike winners in the first, second and fourth races of the day to perform the feat as three favourites, a joint favourite and a second favourite obliged punters.

He met with first success by guiding second favourite bay mare Beautiful Rose to an emphatic three-and-a-half lengths victory over Pampas Grass as fancied filly Sonia Again settled third ahead of colt Zunain Prince among five starters after Gumnam was withdrawn.

In the next, he partnered public fancy four-year-old bay filly Blue Eyes to two lengths victory over mare Money Penny to complete double. Fly Free and Business Man followed the top two in same order. Rider of second favourite Tiny Terror, M.Sajjad, was suspended till further orders for alleged ‘unsatisfactory’ riding as the horse even failed to finish on the board.

Essa came out with flying colours again in the fourth race while galloping fancied five-year-old bay mare Happy Lady home. The winning horse got the better of co-favourite mare National Queen by two-and-a-half lengths. Earlier, half-a-dozen horses faced the starter after filly Be Cool withdrawn before the race. Snow Fairy was placed third fourth lengths further behind while Dancing Queen completed the frame beaten by distance.

Favourite six-year-old bay horse Swell Victory made it two wins on the trot by getting the better of Gold Horse by four-and-a-half lengths to pick up spoils of the fifth and concluding race which was also the feature event.

Sohail Ahmed presented Syed Sibghat­ullah Shah Pir Pagara with a winner in the third race as filly Stylish overcame colt Tejori by two lengths. The field was reduced to four horses following the late withdrawal of Kick.

Results:

THE FEBRUARY PLATE SCALE ORDER VII 4 ½ F:

Beautiful Rose (Wali Mohammad) 9-0, Mohammad Essa 1; Pampas Grass 8-0 (cr8-8), Ghous Bux 2; Sonia Again 8-13, M. Sajjad 3; Zunain Prince 8-0, Latif 4.

Won by 3½ L, 6½ L, Distance. Time: One minute 1 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Naveed Baran.

THE FEBRUARY PLATE SCALE ORDER IV, V AND VI 5 F:

Blue Eyes (Athar Abbas) 8-10, Mohammad Essa 1; Money Penny 8-1 (cr8-8), Ghous Bux 2; Fly Free 7-11 (cr8-0), Wasim 3; Business Man 8-8, Riaz Ahmed 4.

Won by 2 L, 1¼ L, 2 L. Time: One minute 7 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Mazhar.

THE FEBRUARY PLATE SCALE ORDER III AND IV 5 F:

Stylish (Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara) 8-4, Sohail Ahmed 1; Tejori 8-0, Zaki Zakir 2; Drone 8-8, Zubair Ahmed 3; Sher Dil 9-0, Ghous Bux 4.

Won by2 L, 3 L, ½ L. Time: One minute 5 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohyuddin.

THE FEBRUARY PLATE SCALE ORDER I AND II 5 F:

Happy Lady (Haji Khuda Bux Rajar) 8-8, Mohammad Essa 1; National Queen 9-2, M. Nasir 2; Snow Fairy 8-8, Riaz Ahmed 3; Dancing Queen 7-8, Faisal Qamar 4.

Won by 2½ L, 4 L, Distance. Time: One minute 5 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ali Gul.

THE FEBRUARY PLATE SCALE ORDER I 5 F:

Swell Victory (Adam Khan Lango) 7-11, M. Amjad 1; Gold Horse 10-0, Zubair Ahmed 2; Hot Man 9-9, Sohail Ahmed 3; Loyal Lady 8-12, Abdul Rahim 4.

Won by 4½ L, 5 L, 2½ L. Time: One minute 3 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Shahzad.

Published in Dawn February 2nd , 2015

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