LAHORE: A seven-event card featuring two cup races highlight the 16th Lahore Winter Meeting which gets under way here at the Racecourse on Sunday.

The main event, the Golden Drift Cup, a class VI handicap race to commemorate the English filly’s record fastest timing performances in 1,800 metres and 2,000 metres races since 2005 to be run over 1,200 metres, has six acceptors. In spite of a short number of contenders, it looks an interesting race because every runner on their present form has a chance on the assigned handicap. This will be the fifth race in the order.

The fourth and the main supporting event, the Punjab Cup, a class VII Division II and III combined handicap race to be contested over 100 metres has the largest field of eleven runners. The quartet including Well Done Pakistan, J.K., Naymar and Tiger Jet look to be the real contenders in this event.

Sunday’s card comprises events which are tightly handicapped and expected to result in some close finishes to the delight of equine sports connoisseurs. Winner picking will be a difficult task for the punters.

With the breezed up sales of thoroughbred colts and fillies, the race club has witnessed a unique phenomenon with most of the stewards re-joining the ranks of owners, such as Syed Pervez Hussain, Azmat Ali Rnjha, Syed Tasvir Hussain, and Mahmood Khan. Horse owners while talking to Dawn said stewards’ re-entry as owners is a very good sign for the progress of horse racing industry, noting practically they would better know the miseries of average owners in the face of sky-rocketing hike in the prices of grains and animal feed.

Meanwhile, the Lahore Race Club (LRC) has notified for the information of owners the terms and conditions of the new year’s important term race, the Makhdu­mzada Syed Hassan Mahmud Memorial Cup, scheduled for Jan 1.

The cup carries the highest-ever prize money of Rs2 million.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022