KARACHI, Sept 23: The father and son combination along with a rider and a trainer earned a splendid double as Mohammad Essa won day’s riding honours with a magnificent treble in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse here on Sunday.

On a day when favourite horses reigned supreme, four-year-old bay colt Mujahid made amends while galloping to a three-quarter-of-a-length victory over colt Babu to pick up spoils in the fifth race.

The 80 to 100 favourite horse which belonged to KRC president, Syed Sadruddin Shah was ridden home by jockey Ghulam Shabbir II and trained by Sardar Abdul Haq.

Earlier in the fourth race, the trio celebrated the triumph of public fancy filly Generosity who beat mare Dexterous as she pleased by six and quarter-of-a-length. It belonged to the stables of Syed Ismail Shah, son of the KRC official.

Celebrated rider Essa delighted the horse-racing connoisseurs by partnering three winners to steal the limelight. He opened his account by piloting public fancy bay horse Big Joy to a fluent three lengths and a quarter win over Koo Koo Love in the third race followed by back-to-back triumphs in the last two races.

Hs second success came when he guided second favourite filly Shinning Glory to three lengths victory over filly Fly To The Moon in the sixth race which was also feature event and rounded—off his feat when colt Spirit shocked filly See Me World in a short-head verdict in the next race.

The race was so close that all the top four horses — Spirit, See Me World, Queen Of King and Dancing Doll — were engaged in a photo-finish.

At the outset, filly Shahzadi with two second places under her belt, atoned for the loses by getting the better of Ghijju Baba by three- and-a-half lengths while mare Green Nip pulled off the first upset sprinting to impressive eight lengths victory in the second race.

Both the horses were given a perfect ride by rider Waheed, who too shone in the saddle with a brace of winners.