LAHORE, Oct 14: The fancied seven-year-old bay horse Great Grandy, showing vast improvement, clinched feature event of the sixth Lahore winter meeting at the racecourse on Sunday.

The race was run over the distance of seven furlongs like all the other races of the day.

With jockey Aamar Parvez astride, Great Grandy came from behind to easily beat the front-runner Run Way Lady by a distance.

As usual the gelding Lake District, who was installed as a joint-favourite with Great Grandy, went wide as the heads turned for the straight and finished a dismal third, half a length further behind.

The dark bay colt Popeye completed the frame, seven-and-a-half lengths further back.

In all, 14 ran for this sixth and last race of the day.Great Grandy covered the seven-furlong distance in one minute 28 seconds.

Shortly before the start of the race, the Lahore Race Club (LRC) stewards changed the rider of Run Way Lady.

The riding boy Kamran Hussain replaced riding boy Javed Bashir.

The chestnut mare Apple Of My Eye showed some reluctance to be loaded in her box before the start of the race.

However, she was pushed in but she stood up in her box and did not come out at the time of jump off.

After the race, some punters, who had backed Lake District and Apple Of My Eye, said that they failed to understand why such horses are being allowed to run in races if they were not properly trained?

The fancied bay filly Dizzy Height ran yet another good race to annex the supporting event in a pillar-to-post victory.

Ridden by the jockey Shahid Rehman, the bay filly spared one-and- a-half lengths over the bay gelding One Man Show. The grey horse Love Moon and the mare Silk Route completed the frame.

The bay colt Desert Dream caused the biggest upset of the day in the fourth race of the afternoon. Desert Dream defeated the bay gelding Salaaf by three lengths, who nosed out the fancied King Fisher to third position.

Another bay gelding Think Thank completed the board, one-and-a-half lengths further back. Jockey M. Hanif rode the winner.

The stewards cancelled the first race before it was run. Out of the total seven runners, one was withdrawn, thus leaving only six in the field.

Under the LRC rules, the event had to be cancelled. So, the card of six events was reduced to five.

The jockey Aamar Parvez stole limelight of the day’s racing when he brought home a brace of winners. He rode the long-shot chestnut gelding Sir Thank You in the third race and then followed it up by piloting home Great Grandy in the sixth race.

The bay colt Best Lara, owned by Abdul Latif and ridden by the jockey Salah-ud-Din II, scored a popular win as half-money favourite.

The increase in the distance of races did not favour the punters as only one favourite and two joint-favourites won the events in a reduced card of five races.

The raging favourites, the roan-grey filly Princess Altrui, the dark-bay colt King Fisher and the chestnut gelding Lake District were beaten in the third, fourth and sixth races, respectively. 

The handling of the fancied Princess Altrui by the riding boy Qamar Zaman left much to be desired.

The following are the results:

THE CHUNIAN PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION IV & V 7 FURS: