Sriram Komandur trained Aura who had let down as a strongly fancied runner in her previous outing, made amends, winning the 1200 metres Sandur Cup, a race for horses rated 30 to 45, which featured Thursday’s races, with a fair degree of ease. Though the daughter of Tirol would be better off tackling longer trips, as long as she has not reached her mark, she can overcome the disadvantages posed by the sharpness of the trip. Aura was settled in the mid-group as Hawaiian Sunrise ran prominently in front and had everything going for her. However, Aura who was brought on the wide outside and given a free run, devoured ground and surged ahead of the front-runner close home to win comfortably. Hawaiian Sunrise ran on to finish second ahead of Priceless Memories and India Shining Smart N Unique who was strongly fancied to win, found the trip too sharp for comfort though he was not far off from the winner. The temperamental Running Bull, despite all the problems that he faced while being loaded and the injury to his mouth, and the erratic course that he cut early in the race, had no difficulty in slamming the opposition in the manner of a good type of a horse. Running Bull played up while being stalled, came out of the stalls and then was examined by the vet and certified fit to race. Soon after jump out, Running Bull cut across abruptly but jockey Srinath managed to have a firm control on him thereafter and settled the son of Alnasr Alwasheek in the third position before bringing him wide and asking him to stretch out. Running Bull sped away for a comfortable to win over Knight of Hearts. Fancied Precede finished a tame third. Running Bull may be gelded after this run. Royal Falcon and Cote D’Azur were involved in a thrilling duel all the way in the homestretch. The former prevailed by a whisker. Srinath who rode Cote D’Azur raised an objection against Prakash, the rider of Royal Falcon, for squeezing and bumping during the final stages of the race. It was a close call but the Stewards decided to overrule the objection. Srinath, however, had a treble for the day, as apart from Aura and Running Bull, he steered Thursday Nite to a comfortable win in the concluding race of the day. Srinath brought Thursday Nite with a well timed run and the son of Glory of Dancer had the race in his control in the final 100 metres of the race. Black Cat who was fancied by the people in the know, was not well positioned early on but finished purposefully to take the runner up spot. Royal Recreation, one of the fancied runners, was not sighted. Sardar Singh’s Senna was backed to the exclusion of his rivals but jockey Gallagher failed to maneuver the favourite into a good position and tried to improve his position at the steepest part of the race which ruined all the chances. To make matters worse, Senna also bled during the race. Swing Lucky profited to win from Royal Dazzle at nourishing odds to help trainer Arjun Mangalorkar end the day with a double. In the day’s other action, jockey Appu was in the limelight, first steering Serious Warrior to a start to finish win and then guiding Endless Passion to a comfortable victory.