KARACHI: Rider Tariq Baran stole limelight by piloting home a treble, including the Oceania Cup, during the winter Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Saturday.

By accomplishing the feat, Baran became the sixth rider to register a hat-trick of wins at the course this year. The other five who have earlier won the honours include Mohammad Manzoor, Mohammad Nasir, Mohammad Sajjad, Mohammad Qais and Lahore’s Aftab Chaudhry.

Baran’s successes also include galloping chestnut horse Olympus and his stable-mate namesake Olympus One that gave owner Ata-ur-Rehman and trainer Aurangzeb with a double apiece.

In the only upset of the day, Olympus edged favourite filly Show Stopper by half-a-length to land the Oceania Cup, which was also the feature event, scale order I, II and III, run over five furlongs.

Mare Tanya was placed third two lengths behind as My Beauty completed the frame beaten by neck among eight starters.

In an earlier race, favourite chestnut horse Olympus One, formerly Faryad Prince, obliged all and sundry imposing to four-and-a-half lengths victory over mare Afreen.

Mera Aftaab, a dark bay horse, fell behind at third place by a length-and-a-quarter while bay horse Mission Possible completed the board half-a-length away.

Happy Go Lucky was withdrawn before the race.

At the outset, Baran steered public fancy bay horse Wood Pecker to its maiden victory. It was the third run of the winning horse who made his debut on Sept 16.

Placed second in the last run on Dec 9, Wood Pecker defeated mare Second Life as he pleased by 10 lengths.

Load Shedding and Jugni G followed the two in same order.

Four-year-old bay filly Lady’s Secret made it two wins on trot by getting the better of mare New Hope by five-and-a-half lengths with Zaki Zakir astride.

Luck Pass and Zarnatta were placed third and fourth respectively on board.

The next Gymkhana race meeting will be held on Dec 25.

Results:

THE OCEANIC PLATE SCALE ORDER VIII 4½ F:

Wood Pecker (Hamidullah Kasi) 9-0 (cr9-1), Tariq Baran 1; Second Life 8-9, Mohammad Sajjad 2; Load Shedding 8-12, Asad Aksir 3; Jugni G 8-7, Mohammad Amjad 4.

Won by 10 L, 2 L, Head. Time: One minute 2 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Mazhar.

THE OCEANIC PLATE SCALE ORDER VI AND VII 5 F:

Olympus One (Ata-ur-Rehman) 8-10 (cr9-1), Tariq Baran 1; Afreen 9-2, Mohammad Manzoor 2; Mera Aftaab 9-1, Sohail Ahmed 3; Mission Possible 7-12, Muzammil 4.

Won by 4½ L, 1¼ L, ½ L. Time: One minute 6 2/5 seconds. Winner trained by Aurangzeb.

THE OCEANIC CUP SCALE ORDER I, II AND III 5 F:

Olympus (Ata-ur-Rehman) 10-0, Tariq Baran 1; Show Stopper 7-6, Zaki Zakir 2; Tanya 9-2, Mohammad Manzoor 3; My Beauty 7-5, Asad Aksir 4.

Won by ½ L, 2 L, Neck. Time: One minute 5 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Aurangzeb.

THE OCEANIC PLATE SCALE ORDER III, IV AND V 5 F:

Lady’s Secret (Syed Ismail Shah) 7-6, Zaki Zakir 1; New Hope 7-9, Wasim 2; Luck Pass 9-0, Sohail Ahmed 3; Zarnatta 8-4, Asad Aksir 4.

Won by 5½ L, 3½ L, 5 L. Time: One minute 5 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Ghulam Shabbir II.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2017