LAHORE: The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Lahore Race Club (LRC) will be held at its conference room on Saturday which besides other matters relating to betterment of racing, up- date facilities to stake-holders and review financial aspects will elect a 10 stewards panel headed by a chairman for the 2019-20 term in office.

Tradition has it that past chairmen are constantly and rightly too rated or over-rated as the heroes or the champions in the equine field while the newer one is forced to battle their ghosts for recognition.

Interestingly or aptly it seems true. Tariq Aziz emerged on the scene and held the prestigious assignment from 2002 to 2019 for a longest ever-term. He turned the Lahore Racecourse in to a most modern, day/night all weather international standards racing facility besides a magnificent flow of sponsorship of events benefiting the entire racing fraternity in general and horse-owners in Particular.

He had to fight his predecessors’ ghosts, who in the club’s history are remembered as heroes of the equine sports management as they had lent glory to the LRC and the equine sports. The glorious span started from the founder chairman W. Taylor (1924-30), and (1931-37), and then passed on to Sardar Mohammad Jamal Khan Leghari (1948-50), Syed Abid Hussain, Pakistan’s leading horse breeder (1953-54) and 1969-71), Arbab Nur Mohammad Khan (1976-1980) and 1989-1997), breeder as well as the builder, Syed Wajid Ali Shah, Pakistan’s leading sports management administrator with international recognition, and Nawab Mozaffar Ali Khan Qizilbash, a fine thoroughbred breeder and a widely known great lover of horses.

The fact is and will remain that all are heroes, because they have made sterling contributions towards the promotion of the equine sports and horse breeding which at one time had been nearing the western standards. Moreover they have been instrumental to carry forward the mission of horse-breeding and its promotion club’s march towards its centenary celebrations in 2024.

Latest among the champions’ list, Makhdum Syed Ahmad Mahmud took up the role replacing Tariq Aziz in the year 2019-20. He initiated various reform, enhanced prize-money for races, particularly National Breeders Cup (Rs16 lakhs), Pakistan Derby 2020 (Rs30 lakhs) and the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup (Rs11 lakhs) etc., to give an example of few. The prize-money from three top classic events came from his business concern JWD.

Makhdum took up the cudgels to cleansing the environmental pollution and also made arrangements for the lifting of garbage and animal wastage daily and for this work he paid from his own pocket. In club’s management he was assisted by stewards Abdul Qadir Khan Mamdot, Mohammad Kaleem Khan and Mahmood Rafi Khan, Makhdum have found good assistants.

Senior steward Syed Pervez Hussain is a very well regarded racing figure and a popular one too. He secured the highest number of 28 votes in the last year elections. That shows he commands great respect from the LRC members and thus lends great support to his group leader.

Makhdum could have introduced more reforms because he had love for the horses in his blood and owns race-horses and a stud farm and seen spending much of his time at his stables when he is in Lahore, but Coronavirus pandemic dealt a severe blow to the sport which remained closed from March 15 until July end. However, the club had a sound financial base left by Tariq to steer clear the calamitous period.

In all 22 members are in the contest for 10-seat stewards panel, who will later elect chairman to lead the management.

Those in the contest are: Syeda Abida Hussain, Syed Fakhar Imam, Tariq Aziz, retired Lt Col Masud Pervez, Syed Pervez Hussain, Abdul Qadir Khan Mamdot, Mohammad Irfan Monnoo, Khawaja Mohammad Arif, Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa, Arbab Mohammad Zahoor, Javed Khalid, Azmat Ali Ranjha, Chaudhry Mohammad Afzal, retired Col Naeem Sarwar, Mohammad Kaleem Khan, Imran Butt, Makhdum Syed Ahmad Mahmud, Syed Taswir Hussain, Mahmood Rafi Khan, Fawad Ahmed Cheema, Syed Murtaza Mahmud and Mina Maahir Ahmed.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2020