Shah The Great clinches Blooming Maid Cup at LRC.

LAHORE -- Odds-on favourite colt Shah The Great registered an impressive victory to land the Blooming Maid Cup during the Lahore Winter Meeting at the Racecourse here on Sunday.

Owned by Syed Taufiq Kamal Shah and trained by Shahid Rehman, the winner was guided to victory by S. Raza to a four length success over mare Rang-e-Hina in the event run over 1,300 metres. The owner was presented the cup by Lahore Race Club (LRC) Member Retired Colonel Naeem Sarwar.

On a day of mixed proceedings between the punters and the turf accountants, the supporting feature event, the Maidens Cup was won by odds on favourite colt Jaidi's Pride in his maiden appearance on the turf. He beat rank outsider colt Jee Aya Nu by a big margin of seven lengths.

The winning owner Mohammad Javed received the cup from the prominent owner Omar Khan, who was earlier in the day, was enrolled as LRC's new member.

The best performer of the day, however, was the half-money favourite colt Royal Solution who recorded a brilliant victory in the sixth race to give trainer Shahid Rehman his second success of the day and the first to the Karachi-based owner Syed Sibghatullah Shah.

Royal Solution's victory after his two consecutive defeats brought smiles on the faces of all those connected with the winner indicating that the trainer and the jockey Aamir Pervez has done the job well.

The winner is now expected to take his chance in the classic and important events in the season ahead promising a rosy future as he has dominated a well-bred thoroughbreds company to register his first triumph.

The sky, which was overcast with smog in the morning, cleared before the start of races as bright sunshine brought relief from a shivering cold continuing for over a week and the race track was equally good conferring a special advantage to all runners and a sizeable crowd turned up to enjoy racing showing distinct improvement in racing standard and quality of thoroughbreds.

Results:

THE KAGHAN PLATE CLASS VII DIV V - 1,100M:

Sweet Golden (Mohammad Aslam) 9-0, Alam Sher 1; Take Care 7-10, Mohammad Zulfiqar 2; Jonty Road 8-10, Mubashir Bhatti 3; Chan Punjabi 8-8, Mazhar Ali 4.

Won by 4 L, 4 L, 3 L. Time: one minute 13 3/5 seconds. Winner trained by Haji Abid Mahmood.

THE MAIDENS CUP CLASS VII DIV V - 1,100M:

Jaidi's Pride (Mohammad Javed) 9-0, Shakeel Mahmood 1; Jee Aya Nu 8-0, Munir Hussain 2...