KARACHI: The brother pair of riders — Mohammad Manzoor and Mohammad Sajjad — stole limelight by sharing the riding honours with a splendid double apiece in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

The horses belonging to the same connection earned the lion’s share, winning three of the four races, including The Karachi Cup.

It is pertinent to mention that The Karachi Cup has been revived after a long time.

Making her second appearance of the year, co-favourite English mare Tanya did owner Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara proud by presenting him the cup, the first of the year.

Ridden by Manzoor and trained by Mohyuddin, Tanya galloped to two-and-a-half lengths victory over dark bay horse Kalu Khan. Tanya had to be content with third place in her last outing on Feb 12.

Another English horse The Champion, who was placed second in his maiden appearance last weekend and debutant Blind Show occupied third and fourth positions on board respectively. Both the horses were co-favourites.

In an earlier race, Manzoor had piloted home fancied filly Swarovski to four-and-a-half lengths victory over King’s Hand. This was Swarovski’s second victory on the trot.

Almeer seized the third spot beaten by 12 lengths while Big SMO was fourth another two-and-a-half lengths’ behind.

Manzoor’s sibling Sajjad dominated the opening and concluding races in style.

Favourite five-year-old chestnut horse Ayaash made amends while registering a two-length victory over mare Galaxy to land the opening event as Blue Fairy and Lady’s Secret were placed third and fourth places respectively.

Another favourite mare Fairy Tale completed a hat-trick while sprinting to a facile 10-length victory over Doctor in a start-to-finish performance in the last race, which was also the day’s feature event.

Gold Horse and Lacoste followed the two in same order as One Way II was withdrawn before the race.

Results:

THE KARACHI PLATE SCALE ORDER V, VI, VII 5 F:

Ayaash (Syed Konain Mohammad Shah) 7-9, Mohammad Sajjad 1; Galaxy 7-9, Sohail Ahmed 2; Blue Fairy 7-12 (cr8-0), A. Ahmed 3; Lady’s Secret 9-0, Mohammad Nasir 4.

Won by 2 L, 3 L, 2½ L. Time: One minute 6 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Manzoor Baran.

THE KARACHI PLATE SCALE ORDER III, IV AND V 5 F:

Swarovski (Syed Ismail Shah) 7-12 (cr8-2), Mohammad Manzoor 1; King’s Hand 8-4, Sohail Ahmed 2; Almeer 7-7 (cr8-2), Zohaib Qamar 3; Big SMO 7-10, Mohammad Sajjad 4.

Won by 4½ L, 12 L, 2½ L. Time: One minute 4 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Shabbir II.

THE KARACHI CUP SCALE ORDER VIII 4½ F:

Tanya (Syed Sibghatullah Shah Pir Pagara) 9-1, Mohammad Manzoor 1; Kalu Khan 8-10, Nazil Hussain 2; The Champion 9-0 (cr8-7), Zohaib Qamar 3, Blind Show 8-10 (cr8-5), Abdul Hakeem 4.

Won by 2½ L, ¾ L, 4 L. Tim: 0.59 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohyuddin.

THE KARACHI PLATE SCALE ORDER I AND II V 5 F:

Fairy Tale (Irfan Mehdi) 8-12, Mohammad Sajjad 1; Doctor 10-0, Mohammad Nasir 2; Gold Horse 10-0, Tariq Baran 3; Lacoste 9-0, Ghulam Shabbir II 4.

Won by 10 L, 2½ L, 1½ L. Time: One minute 2 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Hanif.

Published in Dawn, february 20th , 2017