A photo finish is a hard way to lose. The race is done, the crowd has called it, and then you wait — for a camera to confirm what everyone already felt. Two weeks ago, on Derby Weekend at Lahore Race Club, Chasing Eden lost one of those. Beaten by the narrowest margin the sport allows. A coin toss. She ran a race that deserved to win. It just did not, quite.
She came back on 19 April 2026, for the April Cup for Maiden 3 Year Olds. This time, no photograph was needed.
Bred to Run: The Line Behind Her
Chasing Eden is by Derab out of Arnaag. Derab brings the speed and soundness Pakistani racing stables have come to trust. But the dam's side is where this story gets interesting. Arnaag was bought by Z-Stables at auction — a calculated bet on a mare who had not yet shown what she could produce. She was sent to Alias Warraich Stud Farm in Sargodha, and that is where Chasing Eden was born. A late foal, in every sense — late in the season, and as it turned out, late to arrive on the track.
She was ridden again by Abdullah Amir. He is an apprentice, but not one who rides like it. His father, Amir Pervaiz, holds the Pakistan Derby record. If the son's performance on the 19th is anything to go by, that family's record at Lahore Race Club is only going to grow.
Chasing Eden is the first from Arnaag's family to perform at the races. The first to show that the bet Z-Stables made at that auction was worth making. She came to Lahore Race Club last year, earned herself the stable nickname Coco, trained through the winter, and came out this season ready. Alias Warraich Stud Farm — home, it should be said humbly, to Farren Star, widely considered the heir to Frankel's throne in Pakistan — has now produced another filly worth watching.
The Long Dry Run With Fillies
Anyone who has followed Z-Stables over the years will read something extra into this result. The stable was founded in 1969 by Sheikh Zaheer Aslam, a man with a rare gift for training fillies. He knew how to place them, how to bring them along, how to get the best out of them. Other trainers noticed. His fillies ran well. The record showed it.
That gift did not transfer easily. In the years since, Z-Stables has found fillies a harder puzzle to solve. Colts have been manageable. Fillies have been another story — full of promise in the morning, full of questions in the afternoon. The stable has taken it in its stride, because racing does not reward complaints, and there is nothing to be gained from arguing with a filly who has made up her mind.
Sheikh Zaheer Aslam had the perfect feather's touch with fillies. The rest of us have been learning, slowly, what that actually means.
— Z-Stables, LahoreChasing Eden's win on the 19th does not fix all of that. She is one result on one afternoon. But she is a filly who lost a photo finish two weeks ago, kept her head, came back, and delivered. That counts for something. In racing, it counts for quite a lot.
What She Wore
Chasing Eden went to post in Kerckhaert Kings Plate Super Sound, Size 5 — the same shoe Z-Stables has been running its thoroughbreds in for years. Z-Stables is Pakistan's exclusive distributor of Kerckhaert horseshoes, sourced from the Royal Kerckhaert Horseshoe Factory in the Netherlands. Kerckhaert is the world's largest independent horseshoe manufacturer — 101 shoe styles, sold in over 60 countries, on the feet of thoroughbreds at every major racing circuit on earth.
The Super Sound earns its name. A Blue Bond polyurethane polymer at the heel absorbs the impact every time the foot hits the ground — protecting joints and soft tissue through a full racing season. The front half of the shoe is aluminium, which keeps it stable under race conditions. For a late foal still building her racing miles, that protection matters. It is what everything else stands on.
- Size 5 · Aluminium + Blue Bond polyurethane heel · Anti-concussion
- Patented Sole Relief — eliminates sole pressure and bruising through training and racing
- Further evolved toe geometry — breakover optimised for stride efficiency
- Super Pitch Plus nail holes — superior nailing strength under race conditions
- Available in Pakistan exclusively through Z-Stables · +92 333 445 6677
What Comes Next
Chasing Eden will keep working through the season. What she showed on Derby Weekend — the pace, the composure, the ability to lose a photo finish and come back two weeks later without missing a beat — points to a filly with more to give. She belongs on a race card. She trains like a horse who takes the work seriously. And the line from Arnaag has finally found a runner to carry it.
The 1000 Guineas is not a conversation for today. But it is not entirely out of the question either. She is young, she is honest, and she won when it mattered. Racing tends to answer its questions in its own time. Chasing Eden has already shown she is patient enough to wait.
For Z-Stables — fifty-six years at Lahore Race Club, Dutch horseshoes, an Argentine polo network, Farnam stable supplies, and a long memory for every filly who promised and then went quiet — this one ran the right way. We will take it.