KARACHI: After having been constant with second place in her last run on Sept 18, favourite unknown pedigree bay mare Sunrise returned to winning ways while landing The October Cup in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Saturday.

Sunrise, who completed hat-trick before finishing second on the board, won as she pleased by 10 lengths to oblige all and sundry. She won the honours by getting the better of filly My Beauty with filly Snow Queen occupying third place half-a-length away while filly Kishmish completed the board four lengths further behind.

Owned by KRC steward Irfan Mehdi and trained by Shahid Mannan, the victorious Sunrise was ridden home by its regular rider M. Manzoor.

Earlier when the betting for the cup race commenced, Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara’s filly My Time was opened co-favourite but she was not on job and failed to finish on the board.

Another favourite unknown pedigree bay colt Place Your Bets stretched his winning streak galloping to a facile eight lengths victory by overtaking front runner filly Rainbow to claim the next race which was also feature event.

Blue Chip and Lacoste occupied third and fourth places respectively on board among half-a-dozen starters.

At the outset, fancied colt Hassan Choice made amends of earlier loss by claiming the opener. He prevailed over debutant Blue Fairy by nine lengths with Kalu Khan and Beautiful Rose taking the next two places.

Outsider filly Sonia Again created quite a stir when she overcome filly Duran Duran by three-quarter-of-a-length to bag honours in the next race. Bay horse Rana The Great settled third while second favourite Follow My Shadow completed the frame. Favourite Sea Gold finished off the board.

Rider M. Nasir steered favourite three-year-old chestnut filly Touch N Go to a dazzling nine lengths victory over dark bay filly English Vinglish to hog limelight in the third race. The field was reduced to five horses following withdrawal of Confusion before the race.

Meanwhile, the next Gymkhana race meeting will be held after a fortnight break due to Moharram on Oct 16.

Results:

THE OCTOBER PLATE SCALE ORDER VIII 4 ½ F:

Hassan Choice (Mr. M. Iqbal) 8-4 Sohail Ahmed 1, Blue Berry 8-11 M. Manzoor 2, Kalu Khan 8-5 Waseem 3, Beautiful Rose 8-4 Zaki Zakir 4. Won by 9 L, 3 ½ L, 5 ½ L. Time: 0.58 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Abid Ali Jan.

THE OCTOBER PLATE SCALE ORDER VI AND VII 5 F:

Sonia Again (Mr. Sher Mohammad) 8-13(cr8-10) Nazil Hussain 1, Duran Duran 8-7 Pervaiz Ali 2, Rana The Great 8-4 M. Manzoor 3, Follow My Shadow 9-2 Tariq Baran 4. Won by ¾ L, 1 ½ L, ¾ L. Time: One minute 7 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by owner.

THE OCTOBER PLATE SCALE ORDER IV 5 F:

Tough N Go (M/s Miss Zainab Ali and Iman Ali) 8-12 M. Nasir 1, English Vinglish 9-2 Zaki Zakir 2, Sunshine 8-2 Sohail Ahmed 3, Aslan 8-10 Ghulam Shabbir II, 4. Won by 9 L, Distance, Distance. Time: One minute 2 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Sharif.

THE OCTOBER CUP SCALE ORDER IV AND V 5 F:

Sunrise (Mr. Irfan Mehdi) 8-2 M. Manzoor 1, My Beauty 9-2 Waseem 2, Snow Queen 8-7 Zaki Zakir 3, Kishmish 9-0(cr8-9) M. Qais 4. Won by 10 L, ½ L, 4 L. Time: One minute 4 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Shahid Mannan.

THE OCTOBER PLATE SCALE ORDER I AND II 5 F:

Place Your Bets (Mr. Nand Kumar Goklani) 7-10 M. Sajjad 1, Rainbow 8-5 Waseem 2, Blue Chip 8-2 M. Manzoor 3, Lacoste 9-0 Ghulam Shabbir II, 4. Won by 8 L, 2 ½ L, 9 L. Time: One minute 6 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Shabbir II.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2016