LAHORE, Dec 27: The year 2003 will go down in the history of Lahore racing as the year of horse-mares and fillies.

Most of the big horse-races in 2003, such as Pakistan Derby, three cups named after Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktum, the 1000 Guineas Of Pakistan, the Independence Day Cup and a number of other prominent cup races have been dominated by the fillies and mares.

To cap them all the Pakistan St. Leger was won by the bay filly Feel The Freedom, having a big margin of five lengths victory over fancied colt Tora Bora, followed by bay colt Royal Falcon and dark-bay colt The Conqueror.

That proved that in racing fillies and mares have more guts, more courage on the race-track than the colts.

However, some of the finest performances during the Lahore Winter Meetings were noticed coming from imported  English fillies. They were Aegean Daisy, Laser Lass, Kowalska, Pretty Pekan, Dancing Key, Catch All and Snow Drop.

The biggest money spinner among the Pakistani bred fillies were the Derby 2003 winner Democracy and Feel The Freedom, who won Pakistan St. Leger and a couple of other good races.

Unquestionably the brightest racing-jewels during the winter meetings were the imported filly, Laser Lass, who won five races, Dock Lands Diva (four races, Pretty Pekan (three races) and Aegean Daisy (three races).

Both Laser Lass and Dock Lands Diva are from the famous lineage of Northern Dancer-Nearco, Pretty Pekan is from Sri Pekan-Red Ransom, Dancing Key from Halling-Sharpen Up and Kowalska from Grand Lodge-Chief’s Crown.

Early in the year 2003, one of racing world’s most renowned personalities, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktum, the deputy ruler of Dubai and finance and industries minister paid a visit to the Lahore Race Club at a special race day as chief guest. He gave the cups named after him.

The Maktum family, rulers of Dubai, are among the leading turf personalities on the international racing circuit and the victories scored by their thoroughbreds are unmatched.

The family owns a grand array of champion sires and dams based in Britain, Ireland, France, Japan, United States and Dubai.

However, no filly or colt has yet been able to surpass the record set up by invincible filly Montreux at the Lahore Racecourse.

This wonder filly, who was imported in utero amassed a dozen victories in 1965 and was defeated only once on her first outing. She retired to stud unbeaten. She is an all-time record holding star by virtue of her unmatched feat.

It is hoped the dawn of the new year will herald even much brighter prospects for the racing fraternity in general and horse-owners in particular.—A.G.