Miss Fatima Jinnah Cup gets underway today.

Byline: Aftab Gilani

LAHORE -- Miss Fatima Jinnah Cup, a term race for three-year-old colts and fillies to be contested over 1600 metres and the Christmas Cup feature prominently in the eight-race-card drawn for the Lahore Winter Meeting which gets under way at the Racecourse here on Sunday.

The prestigious Miss Fatima Jinnah Cup named after the Madar-e-Millat has been introduced for the first time in the Lahore racing calendar and attracted five top class colts and fillies, some of whom may be the contenders for the Pakistan Derby 2020 to be hed in March next.

On the past performance and the track work the notable contenders for the most coveted cup are the two colts-Floating Cloud and Conquest and the filly, License To Kill. They have earned the reputation of four-legged jewels in contests on merit and will be on trial for endurance over the distance to be the real contenders for the Derby.

Bloodline-wise the other four contestants are no less in breeding as well as performance but definitely are short in maturity and experience.

Floating Cloud, a son of Thousand World out-of-Theatre Street, has been acclaimed as a fastest and accomplished racing jewel floating like a cloud in his previous outings worth his name.

The other important race, the Christmas Cup, a term race for two-year-old colts and fillies to be goen over 1200 metres has eight well-bred runners, contesting for making their presence felt with promise for future participation in classic and semi-classic events.

It looks an open affair with Sahil-a colt from Dunhill out-of-Hossana having a slight edge on previous outing.

Meanwhile the Lahore Race Club (LRC) chairman, Mkahdum Syed Ahmad Mahmud has re-introduced the race-day meeting between a n LRC steward and the stake holders including the MOTWs to mark the chance horses in each race which would be tried to make the contests and the sports fair, transparent strictly on merit LRC steward Mahmood Rafi Khan and stakes holders representatives Ata Mohammad Khan, Tony Qureshi, Shafiq Sadiq besides owners and trainers attend the meeting.

The results of previous day racing are also discussed in a pragmatic review at the meeting for further improvement..

In all, a swollen strength of 95 horses will be taking part in eight events. The first race will be held at 11.30am.

Following is the field and our selections.

ATIA PLATE CLASS VII DIVISION V-1100M.

Miss Bray 9-0 Day's Gone 9-0 Take Care 9-0 Janab 9-0 Best Of The Day 9-0 Fakhr-e-Kasur...