LAHORE: A mediocre six-event card , featuring a cup race highlights the 33rd Lahore Winter Meeting programme which gets under way at the Racecourse here on Sunday.
The feature event Champion Sprint Cup, a class VII Division 1 (Class VI included) handicap race to be contested over 1000 metres has seven runners.
Of them on recent form and placing in the recently contested events three come in to reckoning. They are colts J.K., Murtajil and Macs King, who are expected to fight for the top honours in this fifth race of the card.
The supporting event, the High Again Plate class VII division 11 to be gone over 1000 metres has 10 runners of whom on recent form only three attract attention. They are Codes Cracker, Nimal Princess and Alpha to fight for the top slot in the sixth and the last race..
As the Winter Meetings heading towards the end of the winter season programme, the majority of owners have started resting their precious thoroughbreds and are not participating in races with the mercury rapidly shooting upwards.
Meanwhile the important event, the Eclipse Champion Stakes of Pakistan, a semi-classic race to be held on April 16 has been postponed and will now be held on the meeting to be held immediately after Eid-ul-Fitr, The Lahore race Club (LRC) has announced. In the first four races the runners number exceeds double figures and the mixture of form and out of form horses will make the winner picking difficult.
In all, 62 horses are to form the line-up of six events, if there are no last-minute withdrawals. The first race will be held at 12.30pm.
Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023
