| Location | Lahore,Punjab, Pakistan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°26′20″N74°19′58″E / 31.43889°N 74.33278°E /31.43889; 74.33278 |
| Date opened | 1924 |
| Race type | Horse racing |
| Course type | Grass |
Lahore Race Club, inLahore,Punjab,Pakistan, is ahorse racing club established in 1924 when Lahore was part of thePunjab Province ofBritish India.[1]
The club is registered as a company.[2] Some veterans claim that it dates from 1874, and although horse races were organized in Lahore during that period, but the formal record of the present club does not go back so far.[3][4] It was incorporated on 18 January 1924.[2]
The club's racecourse was initially at Jail Road, Lahore, the current site ofJilani Park. In 1976,Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government asked the club to move its races away from the Jail Road course, but it remained there until 1980, when it was compelled to leave.[3]
Races were not held for about fifteen months, but in September 1981 the club reinstated its racing programme on a new course at Kot Lakhpat which has a length of 2,254 metres. Since then, it has gained in strength and now organizes, among other races, thePakistan Derby.[3]
In June 2005, the club hosted Pakistan's first evening horse race under floodlights. The opening ceremony was attended byPervez Musharraf,President of Pakistan, andMohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,crown prince ofDubai, who had financed the night-racing project, the cost of which was some Rs 30 million.[3]