KARACHI, June 9: An interesting afternoon of horseracing was marred at the Summer Gymkhana Meeting, when the raging favourite Fly To The Sky was pulled hook, line and sinker by jockey Ashiq Ali at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

Winning her last two outings with plenty to spare, Fly To the Sky seemed destined to run away with another facile victory in a small field of seven runners at the concluding event, but Ashiq Ali, who partnered the filly on her last two wins thought otherwise.

After taking a great start Ashiq Ali put the clamp on the filly which enabled Al Ashia to take over the running. Turning into the straight Al Ashia still led the field and although Aashiq Ali continued to throttle his mount, Fly To The Sky lost the race by only 3/4 of a length.

After the race the Stewards revoked the license of Ashiq Ali but the suspension also for six months and a fine of Rs.10,000, doled out to trainer A. Waheed Siddiqui was indeed a great surprise.

M. Ateeq, who owns Fly To The Sky along with a string of highly bred horses was actually the real culprit. For it was he who issued the order for the mount to be hooked but since no action is usually taken against an offending owner, the poor trainer had to take the rap.

The opener was won Black Gift ridden by Ahmed, while our fancy Law Of Nature partnered by Zubair Ahmed, picked up the spoils in the next. Winning Queue with M. Nasir in the saddle never let the supporters down in the third event and M. Ateeq’s Champion Lady with Mujahid Ali astride collared front runner Maha Sagar in his last strides in the following event.

Ashok’s grey mare Blue’s Night sprinted to victory in the fifth race of the afternoon giving riding boy Bashir Karim a memorable win and Strategic with Shafi Mohammad aboard, won the sixth race from Giselle and Donatello in a smart time of one minute 3 4/5 seconds over the five furlong sprint.

Following are the results:

SAWAT PLATE CLASS IX DIV G-IV 5F