KARACHI: Punters suffered heavily following upset galore as the card was marred by cancellation of a race for want of competition and punishments to four riders in the Gymkhana race meeting at the Karachi Racecourse on Sunday.

The third race was cancelled soon after being run as with the exception of favourite Fairy Tale and Star Gold who finished first and second respectively on board, other riders allegedly hold their horse s and found lacking in f air riding.

Sonia Again and Over Dosed occupied third and fourth places on the board respectively.

The KRC stewards fined Rs5,000 apiece in addition to issuing last warning to four riders Waseem (My Beauty), Ghulam Shabbir (Over Dosed), Mohammad Essa (Sonia Again) and GhousBux(GraceBhakkar).

Besides two horses Aslan and Hooram were asked to undergo two gate practice before entering the next race.

At the outset, the back-tobacks upsets overshadowed the double by owner, trainer, rider (Nand Kumar, Ghulam Shabbir II, M.

Nasir) Unknown pedigree chestnut horse Choco Bar made amends by lowering the colours of favourite Almeer registering five-and-a-half lengths victory in the opener. Rana The Great was placed third seven lengths away while Kings Khan settled fourth three lengths behind.

The field was reduced to eight horses following withdrawal of chestnut horse Race before the race.

Maintaining the pace, Nasir completed his double af ter a long layof f when he powered yet another outsider colt Fantastic Game to three-quarter-of-alength victory over Follow My Shadow in the next race. Fancied Cash N Carry had to be content with third place beaten by a length-and-a-quarter while Satisfy completed the frame.

The day ended on a sour note for public when another outsider colt Doctor overtook the pair of favourite horses Don and Lacoste to claim the fourth race which was also day`s feature event.

With rider Sohail Ahmed in the saddle, Doctor edged Don by neck in a close finish with Lacoste occupying third place three-quarterof-a-length away. Cherish completed the frame.