LAHORE: Favourite, mare Blue Moon galloped to a spectacular victory in the feature event during the Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse here on Sunday.

The Tuman Khan Plate class VI Division III and IV run over 1,100 metres had a restricted field of seven runners left in the run after the withdrawal of bay filly Thrill ‘N’ Chill from the race.

Shortly before the start of the sixth and the last race of the day’s card, the 20 to 100 odds on favourite Thrill ‘N’ Chill broke her gate and bolted away taking the round of the course since Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards had withdrawn her from the contest.

Later Blue Moon was installed a 60 to 100 favourite. Bay mare Proposal took a quick start followed by Blue Moon and filly Zoaq. Te front-running Proposal unleashed a fast pace but lost stamina in the home stretch when strongly challenged by Blue Moon, who ultimately edged her out to second spot at the finish line to win by a short-head verdict.

Zoaq occupied the third spot, a distance far away.

The winner trained by Amjad Ali II and ridden perfectly by riding boy Babar Ali clocked one minute 8 3/5 seconds over the race distance.

A race earlier, bay filly Benevolent scored any easy victory in the supporting event, the Dur-e-Yemen Plate class VII Division I contested over 1,000 metres distance.

Owned by Sohrab Khan, the 25 to 100 favourite filly beat Tattla Queen by four lengths with bay horse Vegas third.

The fourth race saw a close competition between five horses in which dark-bay filly Pepper, running ahead of the field, held off a strong challenge by chestnut filly Tattla Pride in the dying moments to beat her by a neck to register her first career’s first success and also for new owner Fazeel Asif Jah. This was also the first victory of trainer A.B. Malik in the season. The 70 to 100 favourite filly Cat’s Eye finished third edging out blue roan Banjo to fourth position.

Four favourite horses obliged the punters. Riders Babar Rehman and Ghulam Haider rode a brace of winners each. The former brought in bay colt Gift Me in the opener and Blue Moon in the feature race. Haider strode home Piyara Jutt in the seconds race and completed his double riding home bay filly Zain Love to a convincing victory in the following race.

Results:

THE DUR-E-YEMEN PLATE CLASS VII DIV V — 900M:

Gift Me (Muqaddas Ali Dogar) 8-6, Babar Rehman 1; Aie Desert 9-0, Ghulam Haider 2; Love Master 8-4, Mohammad Wasim 3; Lucky Sohna 8-12, Shah Nawaz 4.

Won by ½ L, Distance, Neck. Time one minute 1 second. Winner trained by Mohammad Rafiq Khan.

THE DUR-E-YEMEN PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV — 900M:

Piyara Jutt (Maqsood Ahmed) 8-4, Ghulam Haider 1; Malika 9-0, Deenar Mirwani 2; Fly To Finish 7-12, Riaz Hussain 3; Visper 8-4, Munir Hussain 4.

Won by 2 L, 2¾ L, 4 L. Time one minute 1 second. Winner trained by Khawaja Qamar Hameed.

THE DUR-E-YEMEN PLATE CLASS VII DIV III & IV — 1,000M:

Zain Love (Abdul Hameed Jutt) 8-12, Ghulam Haider 1; Taha Khan 8-2, Mubashir Bhatti 2; Kali Ghata 8-6, Deenar Mirwani 3; Grey Invader 9-0, Tahir Abbas 4.

Won by 2¼ L, ½ L, 3 L. Time one minute 2 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Malik Manga Khan.

THE DUR-E-YEMEN PLATE CLASS VII DIV II & III — 1,000M:

Pepper (Fazeel Asif Jah) 8-12, Tahir Abbas 1; Tattla Pride 8-0, Ghulam Haider 2; Cat’s Eye 9-0, Mohammad Zulfiqar 3; Banjo 9-0, Mohammad Wasim 4.

Won by Neck, 3 L, Neck. Time one minute 1 4/5 seconds. Winner trained by A.B. Malik.

THE DUR-E-YEMEN PLATE CLASS VII DIV I — 1,000M:

Benevolent (Sohrab Khan) 8-4, Bilal Ahmed 1; Tattla Queen 9-11, S. Moeen 2; Vegas 9-0, Ali Raza 3; Kind Regards 8-0, Mohammad Hanif 4.

Won by 4 L, 4 L, 4 L. Time one minute 1 second. Winner trained by Amjad Ali II.

THE TUMAN KHAN PLATE CLASS VI DIV III & IV — 1,100M:

Blue Moon (Sher Shah Kasi) 7-12, Babar Rehman 1; Proposal 8-10, Tahir Abbas 2; Zoaq 7-10, Raheel Sabir 3; River Rose 7-10, Ghulam Haider 4.

Won by Short-head, Distance, ½ L. Time one minute 8 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Amjad Ali II.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2017