Fair Beauty puts up classy show to win Neelum Cup.

Byline: Aftab Gilani

LAHORE -- Long shot chestnut filly Fair Beauty produced a high-class performance to emerge as magnificent winner of the Neelum Cup during the Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse here on Saturday.

Ridden by jockey Aftab Chaudhry and trained by Mohammad Afzal, the Mohammad Ahsan Irfan-owned Fair Beauty beat a high class field of 13 colts and fillies by a short-head in a fiercely contested event over the sprinting distance of 1,000 metres during term race for two-year-old thoroughbreds.

Dark-bay filly Countess Maraa, ridden by Deenar Mirwani, fighting a neck-to-neck battle, fell short to finish second while bay filly Dahab and filly Remember Me secured third and fourth spots, respectively.

The cup race ended in a strange phenomenon in which all fillies dominated over six participating colts to win the all-important first four positions. Favourite colt Sahil finished among also ran after he stumbled during the race bringing down his rider jockey Mohammad Hanif, who miraculously escaped unhurt.

The winning owner received the cup from Lahore Race Club (LRC) member Sheikh Atif soon after the sixth race.

Riding boy Shakeel Mahmood excelled among riders when he romped home with a brace of winners-bay mare Rang-e-Hina and Gondal Prince to land a double for trainer Aleemuddin.

Saturday's races were attended by LRC chairman Tariq Aziz, stewards retired Lt Col Masud Pervez, Khawaja Mohammad Arif, Arbab Mohammad Zahoor, Mohammad Kaleem Khan, Fawad Ahmad Cheema and Saqibullah Khan Chamkani besides a large number of club members.

Results:

THE HEER SIAL PLATE CLASS VII DIV V - 900M:

Love For Win (Farrukh Mubarak) 8-10, Mohammad Hanif 1; Double O' Seven 9-0, Alam Sher 2; Heart's Cry 9-0, Munir Hussain 3; Artghal 8-8, Deenar Mirwani 4.

Won by 2 L, 2A1/2 L, Head. Time: 55 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Rashid Latif.

THE HEER SIAL PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV - 900M:

Bright Gold (Mohammad Ijaz) 8-8, Mohammad Zulfiqar 1; Fakhr-e-Shorkot 9-0, Deenar Mirwani 2; Ishaq Prince 8-4, Munir Hussain 3; Madiha 8-2, Mazhar Ali 4.

Won by 2A1/4 L, A3/4 L, 1A1/2 L. Time: 56 1/5 seconds. Winner trained by Mohammad Shafiq.

THE HEER SIAL PLATE CLASS VII DIV IV - 900M:

Rang-e-Hina (Ghulam Shabbir Khan) 8-8, Shakeel Mahmood 1; Piyara Saeen 8-8, Bilal Ahmed 2; After Hero 8-10, Mazhar Ali 3; Wahab Choice 9-0...