LAHORE, Oct 10: The racegoers staged a demonstration claiming that the sixth and last event of the mid-week Lahore Gymkhana races Wednesday was “fixed”.

Hundreds of angry punters gathered downstairs, right in front of the stewards box, raised slogans and demanded cancellation of the event.

Some overzealous punters tried to enter the stewards’ room to place their written protest. They were, however, restrained from doing that by the Lahore Race Club (LRC) security staff. In order to bring the agitation to an abrupt end, the stewards declared the race to be in order!

Later, one of the demonstrators, Jawad Niazi, alleged in a statement that the event was “fixed”.

He said that none of the other contestants, excepting the winner Blu’s High, was on try out.

Jawad alleged that the owner of the winning bay colt was a very influential person and the stewards were “afraid” of taking action. The LRC chairman Syed Fakhar Imam was also present at the Wednesday races.—AG