Four year old Far From Over produced a sparkling turn of foot in the final furlong to sail past her opponents and win The Sardar KB Ramachandraraj Urs Memorial Trophy, the feature in a card of nine events on Thursday at Mysore. In the hands of PS Chouhan, the filly re-discovered her last year form to account for her five rivals. During the early stages of her career, Far From Over had proved to be a superb performer. The connections had thought the world of her, and had chosen to campaign her in the Classics. The sudden dip in form had dismayed her camp, and they chose to sell her. Sriram Komandur became her new trainer and it took him some time to sort out her problems. Far From Over was always known to be comfortable over longer trips, and therefore, it was no surprise to see her appearing in the first mile and a quarter race available in the prospectus. She was opposed by the other four year old in this race, named Strategic Change. This Padmanabhan trainee was another one who had flopped after an interesting start to his career. By running a fair second in his only start of the current season, Strategic Change was installed as a firm favourite in the day's feature.

Allowing a couple of no-hopers to lead on sufferance, jockey Sreekanth and Strategic Change were content to bide their time. PS Chouahn chose to track the favourite, and he allowed Far From Over to settle nicely behind the two of them. The order remained more or less the same till they reached the top of the straight. Sreekanth made his move at this stage. He tried to steal a march by rushing Strategic Change to the front. However, PS Chouhan was quick to realize the danger and he too began his charge. Far From Over increased her tempo, lengthened her strides and came alongside. It was an uneven duel thereafter. Far From Over was always moving the better of the two, and she ultimately won by a widening margin of over three lengths. Scimitar did well to take the third spot by ending close behind Strategic Change. Now that Far From Over has found her galloping shoes, the filly should be able to pick up another long distance race in the next class.

Frenchman Ladjadj Stephane was the only professional to score a double on Thursday. By scoring a couple of points, he has joined B Sreekanth at the of the leader board. With three more days of racing this season, their battle for supremacy is likely to go to the wire. He opened his account for the day with Padmanabhan's Klipspringer. The filly was facing a bunch of modest three year olds. The Hyderabad Race Club Gold Cup, the last event reserved for maiden's this season, saw a dozen of them facing the starter. Based on her earlier performances, Klipspringer was rated much above her rivals. Since they were meeting at level terms, this was an unequal contest and a similar sentiment was reflected on the betting boards. Klipspringer started as a short priced favourite and performed on expected lines. Stephane had a tough time settling her behind Aparanta in the earlier stages of this race. All he had to do was to relax his grip on the filly. Klipspringer darted away from the pack and scored effortlessly from Blue Star and a tired Aparanta. The winner is a nice type and has the ability to score in handicap company. Aparanta will be too good to miss the day she runs at her handicap mark.

Stephane's other winner came from the Dhariwal stable. Arabian Gold had won a race during Bangalore Summer and shown that he was a nice type. However, his next few starts had been quite disappointing. He showed signs of a welcome return to form by running prominently in a Classic at Hyderabad. He had led into the straight before finishing a fair fifth in that race. That was good enough for him to be fancied against a set of class IV opponents today. Running in The Vasoo Group Gold Cup, a handicap race over a mile and a quarter, Arabian Gold came from mid division and proved to be too strong for the other runners. Fist Of Rage tried to steal the race by adopting runaway tactics, but that was not to be. He surrendered tamely to the winner's assault and settled for the second prize ahead of Always On Top and Bernicia.

His bid to complete a treble for the afternoon was thwarted by S John and Dancerella. The sparingly raced three year old filly, trained by Arjun Mangalorkar, sprouted a pair of wings and waltzed away from Mabalshwar Memories and a late finishing Akaliki. Padmanabhan trained Mablshwar Memories was considered by many to be unbeatable in this race. He had shown a lot of improvement by retiring as an easy winner of an earlier start and looked capable of defying his nine Kilo penalty. Stephane allowed Mablshwar Memories to race in the shadows of front running Dancerella, and the pair of them were clear of the others, as the field entered the straight. The winner was sighted a long way from home. While Dancerella got stronger and stronger in the straight, Mablshwar Memories hung out under pressure and faded from the scene. A brilliant gallop from Akaliki enabled him to finish on the haunches of Mablshwar Memories.

The Setia Teknologi Cup, a seven furlong race for horses four years old and over in Class III, was split into two divisions. Both of them were won by public choices. The upper division went to the Ganapathy trained The Darling Boy. Mark Gallagher raced him prominently till the bend before assuming command of the situation. He was hard pressed to retain his advantage over Heat Haze and Nishi Girl till he crossed the winning post. Bipin Salvi's Time Flies had it much easier. A mere look at Sunil's posture astride Time Flies in the early stages was enough to realize that he was riding the best horse in this race. It was only a matter of time before he would seize the initiative. Sunil made his move at the bend, and Time Flies gave him the desired response. His lengthening strides enabled him to post one of the easiest victories of the afternoon. Mystic Dawn, Mystic Enchantress and Dance To The Tune finished close to each other while filling the rest of the frame.

A couple of races for horses in class IV completed the rest of the action held this afternoon. Bobby trained Wimbledon Star and Feroz Khan's Unique Star won as relative outsiders. Vaibhav took Wimbledon Star into an early lead and managed to cling onto his advantage. Making free use of the whalebone, the talented apprentice kept the much fancied Chakravyuha Bhedak at bay. Freedom Fighter and Thumping Victory ended close behind the first two finishers. Each one of them will get their turn to enter the winner's enclosure in the smaller Winter Season beginning next month at Mysore. Unique Star showed a lot of early speed to take a firm holds over the proceedings. He looked in control till they entered the final furlong of this race. Despite S Ramesh's urgings, this Feroz trainee began to shorten his strides. Refuse To Bend, Chinab and Del Gratia came with determined strides from the back, and race goers were in for an exciting spectacle. Unique Star and Refuse To Bend were locked together near the winning post. The judge called for a photo to separate the two of them. A subsequent announcement confirmed that Unique Star had managed to hold Refuse To Bend by a narrow margin.