KARACHI: Favourite five-year-old bay horse Big Bravo maintained his ascendancy by lifting the New Year Cup to make it fourth cup triumph on the trot in the winter Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Saturday.

It is pertinent to mention that Big Bravo started the rare feat by winning the Shah Mardan Shah II Pir Pagara VII Memorial Cup on Nov 18 and went on to add the Quaid-i-Azam Trial Cup on Dec 9 and the Quaid-i-Azam Gold Cup on Dec 25.

Earlier in 2017, Big Bravo had won the Pakistan Derby at Lahore.

The 60 to 100 favourite horse coasted to four-and-a-half lengths victory over eight-year-old bay horse Hot Man with its regular rider Aftab Chaudhry from Lahore in the saddle.

Big Bravo’s half-brother Big Bash settled third another four-and-a-half lengths behind while former’s stable mate Toofan completed the frame three-and-a-half lengths away among seven starters. The winning horse clocked one minute 16 seconds for the race run over six furlongs roundbend.

The top three positions were the same in the Quaid-i-Azam Gold Cup.

Show Stopper led initial part of the race but as the horses turned the bend at the home stretch smile appears on the faces of punters who have backed Big Bravo when he overtook the front runner.

Rider Chaudhary completed a double while galloping favourite unknown pedigree bay horse Sayeed Jee to two lengths victory over Zareen in the next race.

At the outset, owner-trained dark bay horse Black Darling obliged all and sundry by winning his maiden race in fourth attempt. He edged Usman Prince by a length-and-a-half for the honours in a field of five horses.

Load Shedding and Sparkle followed the two in same order.

Second favourite bay horse Mission Possible gets the better of mare Second Life by half-a-length as favourite bay horse Day Breaker settled third ahead of Sweet Sereena.

Rank outsider unknown pedigree bay mare Duran Duran created quite a stir while claiming the third race by getting the better of filly Snow White by short head verdict in a closely fought race.

Only Olympus One managed to find a place on board, fourth, as two other fancied horses Sher Khan and Shandar Love were amongst those who also ran.

Results:

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER VIII 4½ F:

Black Darling (Mohammad Mazhar) 8-7, Asad Aksir 1; Usman Prince 8-4, Ghous Bux 2; Load Shedding 8-6, Waheed Baran 3; Sparkle 7-10, Zaki Zakir 4.

Won by 1½ L, 12 L, 4½ L. Time: 0.59 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by owner.

THE NEW YEAR PLATE SCALE ORDER VII 4½ F:

Mission Possible (Fida Hussain) 8-9, Ghous Bux 1; Second Life 8-12, Zohaib Qamar 2; Day Breaker 9-0, Mohammad Nasir 3; Sweet Sereena 8-8, Ali Raza II 4.

Won by ½ L, 6 L, 3½ L. Time: 0.59 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Nasim.

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

Duran Duran (S.M. Wasi Zaidi) 7-11, Mohammad Sajjad 1; Snow White 7-11, Mohammad Amjad 2; Race 8-3, Asad Aksir 3; Olympus One 9-0, Mohammad Nasir 4.

Won by short head, 3 L, head. Time: One minute 4 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohyuddin.

THE NEW YEAR CUP ROUND BEND – A HANDICAP RACE FOR PAK HORSES – 6 F:

Big Bravo (S.M. Raza and Ali Raza) 10-0, Aftab Chaudhry 1; Hot Man 8-8, Waheed Baran 2; Big Bash 9-0 (cr9-1), Tariq Baran 3; Toofan 7-12, Asad Aksir 4.

Won by 4½ L, 4½ L, 3½ L. Time: One minute 16 seconds. Winner trained by Tanvir Abbasi.

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

Sayeen Jee (Zia-ur-Rehman) 8-12, Aftab Chaudhry 1; Zareen 7-6, Mohammad Sajjad 2; Cherish 8-0, Ghous Bux 3; Lady’s Secret 8-3, Zohaib Qamar 4.

Won by 2 L, 5 L, 5 L. Time: One minute 3 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by owner.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2018