LAHORE: A small card of five races featuring the Monsoon Cup has been laid out for the day/night Lahore Summer Meeting racing action which starts here at the Racecourse on Sunday.

The Monsoon Cup, a Class VII Division VI to be contested over 900 metres, contains seven runners. None of them has ever won a race and only two bay colts — Paras Love and Rana Gee — have been placed in their four outings each to make them probable contenders for the honours. This will be the second race of the order.

The main supporting event, the Kaghan Plate Class VII Division I (Class VI included), will be contested over 1,000 metres. Of the seven runners listed for the event, Chestnut Surkhab, who registered an easy success last Sunday, will be going all out to make it two in a row. Nay Silent Assassin, who finished second in the same race, has an advantage in the handicap figures but Surkhab is the fastest and could only be defeated by bay colt Market Leader who will be running after a long absence of over three months. This will be the day’s fourth race.

Though there are nine runners in the opener but the quartet of Umer Princess, Soldier Queen, Noman The Great and Zoaq-e-Yaqeen look the real contenders in the same order.

The third race, the Kaghan Plate Class VII Division IV and V to be contested over 900 metres, has nine runners which looks an open affair as around half-a-dozen of them have a chance.

Bay colt Chhota Bravo, who was beaten in his previous outing, is likely to oblige his owner with a comfortable win in the fifth and last race, the Kaghan Plate Class VII Division II and III to be gone over 1,000 metres.

The first race starts at 6:00pm.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2022