KARACHI: Champion rider Mohammad Essa cantered home a treble – his second of the year — to dominate a small four-race card in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

Fresh from his last treble in the first meeting of this month on Feb 1, Essa again obliged all and sundry with his sterling performance to take his winning tally to nine in two months.

At the outset, he steered 20 to 100 favourite bay horse Grey Song to an authoritative 11-length victory over bay colt Dabang to land the opener. This was Grey Song’s maiden win of the year as he was placed second four lengths behind Khazana in the last outing. Filly Sonia Again finished third four lengths behind while filly Rubai completed the frame further beaten by three lengths among seven starters.

Another fancied Shandar Love, an unknown pedigree bay filly, made it two on trot defeating mare Beautiful Rose hands down by 12 lengths with up and coming rider Asad Aksir in the saddle.

Four-year-old bay colt Cigar was opened even-money for place when the betting for the race opened and later became 60 to 100 favourite before its sudden withdrawal paving the way for Shandar Love to become fancy. Colt Silk Master and filly Fly Free followed the two respectively on board.

Essa’s next two successes were a result of tactful handling of his mounts — five-year-old bay mare Happy Lady and stable-mate five-year-old chestnut horse Gold City in close finish. Both the winning horses belonged to the owner Haji Khuda Bux Rajar and trained by Ali Gul.

Happy Lady edged co-favourite bay horse All The Way by head so seize the third race while Gold City overcome bay horse Swell Victory in a photo-finish verdict by head to claim the next race which was also feature event.

The last race was preceded by re-betting following withdrawal of favourite Hot Man leaving five contestants in fray. Gold City, which was earlier second favourite, thus becomes public fancy. Gold Horse and Sensational occupied the remaining two positions on board.

Results:

THE DOLLAR PLATE SCALE ORDER VI, VII AND VIII 4 ½ F:

Grey Song (Tariq Aziz) 9-0, Mohammad Essa 1; Dabang 7-4 (cr8-0), M. Amjad 2; Sonia Again 9-5 (cr8-12), Farjad Habib 3; Rubai 7-4 (cr8-4), Faisal Qamar 4.

Won by 11 L, 4 L, 3 L. Time: One minute 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Sher Mohammad.

THE DOLLAR PLATE SCALE ORDER V AND VI 5 F:

Shandar Love (Jahangir Khan Mengal) 8-10, Asad Aksir 1; Beautiful Rose 7-11 (cr7-4), N. Qais 2; Silk Master 9-0, Abdul Rahim 3; Fly Free 8-5, M. Amjad 4.

Won by 12 L, 2½ L, 1 L. Time: One minute 5 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Pervaiz.

THE DOLLAR PLATE SCALE ORDER I, II AND III 5 F:

Happy Lady (Haji Khuda Bux Rajar) 9-3, Mohammad Essa 1; All The Way 7-13, Zaki Zakir 2; Fast Departure 7-0 (cr8-0), Latif 3; Zahrat Dubai 8-9, Sohail Ahmed 4.

Won by Head, 10 L, Head. Time: One minute4 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ali Gul.

THE DOLLAR PLATE SCALE ORDER I 5 F:

Gold City (Haji Khuda Bux Rajar) 8-8, Mohammad Essa 1; Swell Victory 9-10, Abdul Rahim 2; Gold Horse 10-0, Zubair Ahmed 3; Sensational 8-3, Asad Aksir 4.

Won by Head, 3 L, 1½ L. Time: One minute 4 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ali Gul.

Published in Dawn February 23rd , 2015

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