LAHORE: A cup race featuring in a mediocre five-event card will be the main attraction for race-goers when the second day/night Lahore Summer Meeting gets under way here at the Racecourse on Sunday.

In all, 39 horses will be featuring in Sunday’s races, showing no better response from owners and trainers, who are reluctant to field their horses due to persistent hot weather in the city.

However, the weather has improved slightly after Friday’s downpour in Lahore which may induce owners and trainers to enter more horses in the races.

The Sprint Cup, a Class VII Division VI handicap race to be gone over 800 metres has nine runners of whom three look to be real contenders. They are colts Mafnoor JR and Wonder Boy and chestnut horse Noman The Great. They have shown their worth in previous outing to remain in the limelight.

The main supporting event, the Jhelum Plate Class VII Division I and II to be contested over 1,000 metres, has seven runners. Filly Sand Storm, beaten in her last run, should make amends and prevail over six opponents to win the fourth race in racing order.

The other three races though have relatively smaller fields but the horses taking part in them are closely handicapped and for this reason picking winners may prove a difficult task for punters.

Meanwhile, the administrators in a notification has informed the owners/trainers to submit in time declarations of riders on their horses taking part in races.

The first race starts at 6:00pm.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2022