LAHORE: Bay filly Watto Choice comfortably won the July Cup feature event in muggy weather on Thursday evening to mark the start of the new racing season during the opening day/night Lahore Summer Meeting here at the floodlit Racecourse.

Watto Choice, who was conditioned by champion trainer Mohammad Afzal, beat bay horse Silent Assassin by a big margin of four-and-a-half lengths with bay Gondal Gift ending a close third while the even-money favourite filly Sanwli Saloni completed the frame among eight runners in this fourth race, run over 1,000 metres, of the five-event card.

The supporting feature event, Chocolate Day Cup, gone over 900 metres was won by favourite gelding Mumraiz Prince who made amends for his defeat in his last outing with an easy eight length victory over colt Hard Target.

The winner was trained by Rashid Latif and was guided by Memraiz Khan in front of a moderate crowd This was the second contest of the racing order.

In the supporting event, chestnut filly Gul-e-Jalal — trained by Mazhar Abbas — underlined the improvement when it got the better of chestnut Golden Pound in a final furlong dash to win her maiden race as she outpaced five rivals.

Owned by breeder Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, the filly was piloted by riding boy Mohammad Sajjad.

Bay mare Gul-e-Measam defied a heavy impost of weight carrying 9-4 in the handicap to beat favourite filly Sehar in the third race giving a rude shock to punters. Ridden by Deenar Mirwani, the winner which was trained by Mazhar Abbas Kalyar, came with a well-timed challenge to beat Sehar by three-fourth of a length while bay gelding Sultan Jehanian finished a close third.

Jockey Deenar Mirwani ended the day with a good double riding home Gul-e-Measam in the third and Watto Choice in the following race but failed to complete a hat-trick when his mount Chota Bravo was beaten by bay horse Salam-e-Dera in the fifth and last race.

The next Lahore Summer Meeting races will be held on July 17, an official announcement said.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2022