LAHORE: Bay filly Galactica produced a stunning performance to win the June Cup during the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting here at the Racecourse on Sunday.

Making a perfect move in her last strides, Galactica overtook front-running Borty and then warded off a strong challenge from favourite colt Summer Beauty which succumbed to a heavy impost of nine stone 12-pound weight in handicap figures by a head’s margin, leaving punters bemused.

Borty lost stamina in the 1,000-metre race to finish third, about two lengths back. This was the fourth race of the day.

A race later, longshot bay mare Tattla Princess in a nice performance won the supporting event, the Chan Plate Class VII Division II and III, run over 1,000 metres.

Ridden by Awais Anjum, punters neglected the mare which overpowered front-running favourite bay colt Glorious by half-a-length. Her victory gave Awais Anjum a lucrative double. Earlier in the second race, he had flawlessly ridden Fazeel Prince to beat favourite colt Pola Polla by about two lengths.

Jockey Shahbaz had a good day as he shared riding honours with Anjum when he brought in Lady Champion in the first race and then followed it up with a dead heat victory partnering Mitchal Prince with Galileo Lady, Safdar Hussain in the saddle, in the third race.

So close was the finish that even magic eye of the camera failed to separate them. Spurred by a dead heat victory, jockey Safar Hussain led Zaman Sahib to a three-length victory over Forsythia in the last race of the day.

Meanwhile, the competition between two leading trainers - Mohammad Afzal and Rashid Latif -- for the season’s championship has entered a crucial stage.

Afzal is leading the trainers’ performance stats with 46 victories so far while Rashid is mighty close with 45 wins under his belt. With only two race days left, a grim battle is set to continue between the two professionals to win the season honours which carries a prize too.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2023