LAHORE: A six-event card including a cup race marks the 39th Lahore Winter Meeting, which is a day-night affair being held here at the Racecourse on Sunday.

The feature event, the Islamabad Cup, a Class VII Division I and II handicap race to be gone over 1,000 metres, has eight runners. Three protagonists, all of them colts, with solid credentials are Champ, Al Shouq and Al Ravi.

Champ looks to have advantage but Al Shouq and Al Ravi can also produce tremendous performance in this race, the fifth of the order.

In the supporting event, the 1,000-metre Samasatta Plate Class VI Division III, bay filly Winning Colours from English sire Thousand Words would be going all out to prove her breeding credentials against five opponents including her half-brother red-roan colt Hizar.

The opener, the Samasatta Plate Class VII Division V and VI, contains the largest field of a dozen runners. Bay Chhota Pathan, beaten in his last outing, should make amends this time while Mitchal Prince, Gailileo Lady and Noman The Great are expected to fight for the frame.

Bay filly Roshnee looks fastest among the seven drawn for the second race, the Samasatta Plate Class VII Division VI, to win with Khaqan King and Life Is Good likely to fight for a place.

The quartet of Sultan Jahanian, Mafnood Jr, M. Princess and Absolutely Not look prominent contenders in the third race, the Sammasatta Plate Class VII Division V, to fight for supremacy in the same order.

The 1,000-metre fourth race with nine runners seems an open affair with the majority of runners looking on chance.

The first race is scheduled to start at 5:30pm.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2023