LAHORE, June 27: The 75-year-old, horse-trainer Haji Fazal Hadi proved the old saying ‘old is gold’, true when he ended the just concluded Lahore Racing Calendar 2004-05 on a triumphant note to emerge as the champion trainer for the second successive year and the sixth of his career. In a very close contest on the trainers log, Hadi sent out 31 winners during the season.

His closest rivals were Javaid Shirazi, who finished runners-up with four wins short of his senior colleague in the equine sports.

Veteran Khadim Hussain could muster 25 wins to earn third position on the trainers statistics table.

It was a strange coincidence that all the top three trainers have had mishaps, which retarded their march towards stardom.

Fazal was suspended for a couple of months on a technical objection during the later part of the season. Javaid Shirazi lost a good stable while Khadim Hussain parted ways with the owners of a leading stable in Lahore.

Had these incidents not occurred they would have increased their win tally to many more victories to their credit. This is for the sixth time Fazal has won this feat.

He first won the trainers championship in 1971-72 and then followed it up by winning the same honours in 1973-74 and 1974-75.

He was once again leading by a good margin for the fourth time in 1976-77 when the then government put a ban on horse-racing shortly before the season ended.

Hadi achieved the distinction for the fifth time last year, 2003-04. Talking to Dawn, Hadi said that when he won the championship for the first time, he was a young man.

Now he is a bespectacled man with wrinkles on his face showing signs of aging.

He said Arbab Nur Muhammad Khan, a prominent horse-owner of sixties with whom he was associated brought him in this sport.

Arbab encouraged him to become a rider as he himself was a gentleman rider.

He joined as an apprentice rider and soon became a good rider, then a jockey and later he joined the ranks of trainers.

As jockey and as a trainer, Hadi said, in both the capacities he had won almost all the classics including the Pakistan Derby.

He said age has not withered his interest and determination in racing and he is fully confident to complete a hat trick of the championship in the coming season.