LAHORE: Three-year-old dark-bay colt Falling Rain registered another classic victory during the feature event in the Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse here on Sunday.

The Makhdoom Syed Ahmad Mahmood-owned colt was ridden by jockey Shahid Rehman to record his fourth success in-a-row.

This son of English sire, Sleeping Indian out-of-Dialect, had by far the best bloodline credentials in the weak looking field in the Saif-ul-Malook Plate run over the sprinting distance of 1,200 metres and lived up to his stardom. He beat colt Hidden Passion by a big margin of nine lengths with the bay mare Unanimous third by a short-head’s narrow margin.

The winner clocked a fast timing of one minute 11 3/5 seconds over the race distance which was a fraction less than the fastest time clocked by the filly, Trace Hit in June 2006.

Eight runners had taken part in the event. Jockey A. Raza, trainers Tauqir Ahmed and S. Butt shared the day’s racing honours with Raza riding home three winners and Tauqir and S. Butt saddling two winners each.

Raza rode Samara, Sparks and Vixen while Tauqir sent out Preetam and Vixen and S. Butt completed his double through Excellent and Samara.

Results:
THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV-B — 800M:

Senorita (Babar Iqbal) 8-8, Qadeer Ahmed 1; Esperanza 8-8, Shah Nawaz 2; There Is 9-0, Sunny Babu 3; Bulbul Again 8-4, Majid Ali II 4. Won by Neck, 2 L, short-head. Time 52 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by owner.

THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV-A — 800M:

Preetam (Najeeb Haider Bagri) 8-4, Zahid Ali 1; Winning Princess 8-0, Sunny Babu 2; Black ‘N’ Bold 8-12, Umar Shahzad 3; Sawan Prince 9-6, Umar Saleem 4. Won by 3 L, ¾ L, 1¾ L. Time 51 seconds. Winner trained by Tauqir Ahmed.

THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VII DIV III — 1,200M:

Excellent (Mohammad Shiraz Butt) 8-0, Sunny Babu 1; Mah-e-Doura 9-0, A. Raza 2; Home Child 8-0, Waheed Baran 3; Chal Samney 8-2, Rifaqat Ali 4. Won by 2½ L, 2 L, 5 L. Time one minute 19 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by S. Butt.

THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VII DIV I & II — 1,200M:

Samara (M. Shiraz Butt) 9-0, A. Raza 1; Nikita 8-8, M. Zulfiqar 2; Sahil 9-4, Sunny Babu 3; Victory Malik 8-12, M. Hanif 4. Won by 4 L, 2 L, 3½ L. Time one minute 16 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by S. Butt.

THE SAIF-UL-MALOOK PLATE CLASS V DIV II& III — 1,200M:

Falling Rain (Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mahmood) 9-6, Shahid Rehman 1; Hidden Passion 8-0, M. Zulfiqar 2; Unanimous 9-10, A. Imran 3; Ballerina 8-0, M. Zeeshan 4. Won by 9 L, Short-head, Distance. Time one minute 11 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Shahid Rehman.

THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VI DIV I & II — 1,200M:

Sparks (Sarmad Masood) 8-10, A. Raza 1; Honey For Money 8-10, M. Hanif 2; Khan Prince 9-6, Sunny Babu 3; Sher Garh 9-4, M. Zulfiqar 4. Won by Distance, 2¼ L, Neck. Time one minute 13 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Aleemuddin.

THE MONTREAUX PLATE CLASS VI DIV III — 1,200M:

Vixen (Sheikh Umar Zaheer) 8-12, A. Raza 1; Momoco 8-0, M. Hanif 2; Spirit Jim 8-6, M. Zulfiqar 3; Effective 7-12, M. Zeeshan 4. Won by 2½ L, 1 L, 3 L. Time one minute 16 34/5 seconds. Winner trained by Tauqir Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014