LAHORE: Odds-on favourite bay filly Melsi produced a high calibre run to emerge as a magnificent winner of the Farewell Cup during the 35th Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse here on Sunday.

Owned by Sohrab Khan and trained by Amjad Ali II, Melsi delighted a holiday crowd of equine sports connoisseurs by beating a classy field by a huge margin in a remarkable fast time of one minute 41 4/5 seconds over the 1,600 metres race distance.

Brown colt Jhelum Star finished second with Dosti and Admiral’s Walk completing the frame.

Ridden by jockey Aamir Pervez, the three-year-old daughter of Vitellozi out-of-Top Cat extended her winning streak to six in nine outings to-date.

This was the sixth race of the day.

The horse-racing fans witnessed yet another fine performance a race earlier when chestnut colt Olympus, partnered by jockey A. Raza, won the High Again Plate for class VI division III run over 1,000 metres.

The Makhdoom Saad Asfand Yar Ali-owned colt trained by Sajid Mahmood beat bay colt Face The Pace who put up a strong challenge to the winner before bowing out in the last few strides by one-and-a-half lengths. Khan Prince and Lady Extempore completed the frame among a dozen starters.

It was a good day for the punters when six favourite horses won in a card of seven races. They began the day’s proceeding on a disappointing note when rank outsider mare Mushk-e-Amber registered an upset victory.

However in the remaining six events, the well-backed horses won with dark-bay colt Kartoos shot to lead the pack in the dying strides to register a length’s success over bay colt Dil Da Jani.

Results:

THE DRURE PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV — 1,000M:

Mushk-e-Amber (Babar Shaban Aslam) 8-6, Alam Sher 1; Buy And Sell 7-8, Sunny Babu 2; Bulbul Again 7-8, Shafqat 3; Phantom 8-0, Riaz Hussain 4. Won by 1¾ L, 5½ L, 2¼ L, Time one minute 5 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Zahid Rasheed.

THE DRURE PLATE CLASS VII DIV III & IV — 1,000M:

Sabre Queen (Liaquat Ali) 8-2, Imran Hussain 1; Gold Medal 9-0, Tahir Abbas 2; Sixth Sense 8-4, Alam Sher 3; Mah-e-Doura 8-12, Sunny Babu 4.
Won by Distance, ¾ L, 5½ L. Time one minute 3 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by owner.

THE DRURE PLATE CLASS VII DIV III — 1,000M:

Tarteeb (Khizer Nawaz) 8-8, Tahir Abbas 1; Virsa 9-0, Aftab Chaudhry 2; Lucky Sohna 9-0, Shakeel Mahmood 3; Qadardan 8-2, M. Sajjad 4. Won by 7½ L, 2¼ L, 2½ L. Time one minute 3 seconds. Winner trained by Latif Butt.

THE DRURE PLATE CLASS VII DIV I & II — 1,000M:

Chand Pari (Shabbir Ahmed) 7-12, M. Hanif 1; Dera Dubai 7-12, Shafqat 2; Magic King 8-0, Alam Sher 3; Danish Prince 7-8, Tahir Abbas 4. Won by 1¼ L, Neck, 4 L. Time one minute 3 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Latif Butt.

THE HIGH AGAIN PLATE CLASS VI DIV III — 1,000M:

Olympus (Makhdoom Saad Asfand Yar Ali ) 9-0, A. Raza 1; Face The Pace 7-12, Shafqat 2; Khan Prince 9-0, Shakeel Mahmood 3; Lady Extempore 9-4, Javed Iqbal 4. Won by 1½ L, 4 L, 3½ L. Time one minute 2 seconds. Winner trained by Sajid Mahmood.

THE FAREWELL CUP — A TERM RACE FOR THREE-YEAR-OLD COLTS AND FILLIES — 1,600M:

Melsi (Sohrab Khan) 9-3, Aamir Pervez 1; Jhelum Star 8-2, A. Raza 2; Dosti 8-5, M. Jameel 3; Admiral’s Walk 7-12, M. Hanif 4. Won by Distance, 2¾ L, Distance. Time one minute 41 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Amjad Ali II.

THE HIGH AGAIN PLATE CLASS VI DIV I & II — 1,000M:

Kartoos (Abid Mahmood Siddiqui) 8-4, A. Raza 1; Dil Da Jani 7-8, Aftab Chaudhry 2; No Way 8-4, Shafqat 3; Anchor 7-10, Tahir Abbas 4. Won by 1½ L, 5 L, ½ L, ½ L. Time one minute 0 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Abdullah.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2015

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