KARACHI: Public fancy five-year-old bay horse Hot Man opened the new season on winning note while lifting The New Year Cup and leaving the winless jinx behind in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Saturday.

With three second finishes under his belt including The Quaid-i-Azam Gold Cup on Dec 25, Hot Man galloped to two lengths and-a-half victory to atone for the successive defeats.

Owned by Mohammad Sumair and trained by Shahid Mannan, the winning horse got the better of bay horse Arsenal with rider Sohail Ahmed astride.

Mare National Queen was placed third two lengths further away while dark bay horse Arkadian completed the frame among nine starters.

Rider Sohail completed a splendid double by guiding Swell Victory, a six-year-old bay horse, to a commendable 13 lengths victory in the next race. The winning horse gets past co-favourite Janab Sahab for the honours.

The two horses were followed by Snow Fairy and Miss Oscar respectively.

In an earlier race, three-year-old bay colt Accepted obliged all and sundry prevailing over filly Honey Queen by four lengths.

At the outset, favourites bit the dust in the the first two races of the five-race card.

Rank outsider filly Shandar Love created quite a stir beating fancied colt Free Hand hands down by nine lengths to win the opener.

Similarly, long shot Lucky Lyna picked up spoils in the second race overcoming filly Sonia Again by a length-and-three quarter.

Rider Waseem, who galloped Lucky Lyna home, also ended the day with matching performance of his contemporary Sohail by completing a double his other winner being Accepted.

Results:

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER VII AND VIII 4 ½ F:

Shandar Love (Mr. Jehangir Khan Mengal) 8-8 Ghous Bux 1, Free Hand 8-8 Waseem 2, Pampas Grass 9-2 M. Arif 3, God Gift 8-8 Zaki Zakir 4. Won by 9 L, 12 L, 4 ½ L. Time: One minute 1 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Pervaiz.

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER VI AND VII 5 F:

Lucky Lyna (Mr. Tariq Aziz) 8-12 Waseem 1, Sonia Again 7-10 M. Amjad 2, Beautiful Rose 8-0 Mohammad Essa 3, Postal Address 8-12 Sohail Ahmed 4. Won by 1 ¾ L, ¾ L, 1 ¼ L. Time: One minute 8 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Sher Mohammad.

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER IV AND V 5 F:

Accepted (Mr. Irfan Mehdi) 7-8(cr7-12) Waseem 1, Honey Queen 8-6 Mohammed Essa 2, Meri Sahiba 8-3 Zaki Zakir 3, Olympic 9-0(cr8-10) Zaki Zakir 4. Won by 4 L, 5 L, Neck. Time: One minute 4 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Hanif.

THE NEW YEAR CUP SCALE ORDER I 5 ½ F:

Hot Man (Mr. Mohammad Sumair) 9-4 Sohail Ahmed 1, Arsenel 9-2 M. Nasir 2, National Queen 7-6 Waseem 3, Arkadian 9-0 Waheed 4. Won by 2 ½ L, 2 L, 1 ¾ L. Time: One minute10 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Shahid Mannan.

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER I AND II 5 F:

Swell Victory (Mr. Adam Khan Lango) 9-1 Sohail Ahmed 1, Janab Sahib 8-7 Waseem 2, Snow Fairy 8-10 Ghous Bux 3, Miss Oscar 9-0 Ghulam Shabbir II, 4. Won by 13 L, 2 ¾ L, 5 L. Time: One minute 3 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by M. Shahzad.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2015

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