KARACHI: Zaki Zakir, co-champion Rider of the Year, piloted home a brace of winners including the Defence Day Cup, as favourites dominated a five-race card in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

Three-year-old dark bay filly English Vinglish obliged all and sundry winning as she pleased by eight lengths to land the Defence Day Cup in style.

Owned by Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara and trained by champion trainer Mohyuddin, English Vinglish set the pace right from the start to win the honours. She got the better of filly Quicken Away in a field of five horses.

Filly Neem Tree settled third five lengths away while filly Gamez Over completed the board further beaten by distance.

Fresh from the triumph, Zakir galloped second favourite filly Lacoste home by eight lengths in the next race to complete a splendid double. Lacoste lowered the colours of public fancy colt Blue Chip as the field was reduced to nine following withdrawal of Place Your Bets and Something Royal.

Unknown pedigree bay colt King Of Clifton settled for third place while bay colt Over Dosed completed the frame.

At the outset, 80 to 100 favourite filly Loot Lo justified her credentials while prevailing over filly Duran Duran by two lengths and-a-half to land the opener.

Achievement and Rana The Great seized third and fourth places on the board.

Another fancied mare Sunrise made it two victories on the trot when she edged colt Doctor by two lengths to claim honours in the next race.

Favourite three-year-old dark bay filly Confusion bit the dust as outsider mare Sunshine pulled off the upset galloping to three-and-a-half lengths victory in the third race.

Sunshine prevailed over Satisfy as Confusion had to be content with third slot followed by My Time.

Filly Swarovski was withdrawn before the race leaving 10 horses in the fray.

Former provincial agriculture minister Ali Nawaz Khan Mehar, who graced the occasion, awarded the Defence Day Cup to young daughter of Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara in the paddock.

Meanwhile, the next Gymkhana race meeting will be held next Saturday owing to Eid-ul-Azha falling on Tuesday (Sept 13).

Following is the field and selections:

THE DEFENCE PLATE SCALE ORDER VIII 4½ F:

Loot Lo (Rana Babar Hussain) 9-4, M. Sajjad 1; Duran Duran 8-7, M. Amjad 2; Achievement 9-4, M. Manzoor 3; Rana The Great 9-0, M. Nasir 4.

Won by 2½ L, 5½ L, ½ L. Time: 0.59 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by S. Khan.

THE DEFENCE PLATE SCALE ORDER VI AND VII 5 F:

Sunrise (Irfan Mehdi) 7-9, M. Manzoor 1; Doctor 8-12, Wasim 2; Follow My Shadow 8-13 (cr8-6), Zohaib Qamar 3; Jugni G 7-12, M. Amjad 4.

Won by 2 L, 5 L, 7 L. Time: One minute 5 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Shahid Mannan.

THE DEFENCE PLATE SCALE ORDER IV AND V 5 F:

Sunshine (M. Iqbal) 7-13, Sohail Ahmed 1; Satisfy 8-11, M. Manzoor 2; Confusion 8-11, M. Amjad 3; My Time 7-9, M. Sajjad 4.

Won by 3½ L, 2 L, 1¾ L. Time: One minute 5 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Abid Ali Jan.

THE DEFENCE DAY CUP – A HANDICAP RACE FOR THREE-YEAR-OLD AND UPWARD PAK HORSES – 5 F:

English Vinglish (Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara) 7-0, Zaki Zakir 1; Quicken Away 7-0, Sohail Ahmed 2; Neem Tree 10-0, Wasim 3; Gamez Over 9-3, Ghulam Shabbir II 4.

Won by 8 L, 5 L, distance. Time: One minute 3 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohyuddin.

THE DEFENCE PLATE SCALE ORDER II AND III 5 F:

Lacoste (Imamuddin Shouqeen) 7-9, Zaki Zakir 1; Blue Chip 7-10, Sohail Ahmed 2; King Of Clifton 8-10, M. Manzoor 3; Over Dosed 8-2 (cr8-6), Ghulam Shabbir II 4.

Won by 8 L, 10 L, 7 L. Time: One minute 5 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Shabbir II.

Published in Dawn September 5th, 2016