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Hoop of Colour proves best in Santa Ana

Hoop of Colour powered home in the Santa Ana to earn her first stakes victory (Benoit Photos) Flaxman Holdings Ltd.'s homebred Hoop of Colour (Distorted Humor) rallied three wide in Sunday's $201,000 Santa Ana S. (G2) at Santa Anita Park to record her first stakes victory when crossing under the wire three parts of a length in front of Three Hearts (Hat Trick). The Kentucky-bred miss, trained by Graham Motion and ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, was cutting back to nine furlongs after making her U.S. debut last out in a 1 1/4-mile allowance/optional claimer over the course. She scored that day, leading her connections to dream of bigger and better races. One of those races came in the Santa Ana as Van Dyke settled Hoop of Colour into a nice stalking spot along the inside just behind her pacesetting stablemate Rusty Slipper (Lemon Drop Kid) and Three Hearts. The four-year-old filly maintained that spot as Rusty Slipper set splits of :25, :49 2/5 and 1:13 3/5 around the first turn and down the backstretch. Three Hearts put in her bid rounding the final turn, taking over from Rusty Slipper, and Hoop of Colour followed three wide after angling out a bit. Three Hearts held firm command of the race in the lane, but Hoop of Colour was inching her way forward. The bay miss kept motoring and ran down Three Hearts to return $26.80 as the 12-1 sixth choice in the nine-distaffer field. Winning Rhythm, the 41-1 longshot, filled the third spot a length behind Three Hearts while 5-2 favorite Diversy Harbor (Curlin) finished another half-length and two necks back in sixth.

"Last race we went really, really slow and her kick, I had never felt anything like that before," Van Dyke said. "Today, right out of the gate, I was set up perfect, she broke well. The only other speed was Three Hearts and the other Motion horse, Rusty Slipper.

"I got right behind Rusty Slipper; my horse threw her ears up and she was so relaxed. Near the half-mile pole only two horses were in front of me so I got out, stayed off Three Hearts' hip and I had clear sailing from there when I asked her to run with no trouble."

Hoop of Colour made four starts last year in England, breaking her maiden at Newbury in the second of those, before shipping stateside. This first black-type score bumped her career earnings to $164,906.

"She's a really nice filly, and all that family, three or four of them, have been graded stakes winners. She's shown a lot of talent since she's been here," assistant trainer Alice Clapham noted. "Drayden won on her first time here and she's been training great since then, and this race kind of came up so we thought we'd just take a shot, and it worked out well.

"I'm sure Graham will talk to the owners and sort that out (what might be next). We might run her back here in that mile and quarter turf race ($150,000 Santa Barbara H. [G3] on April 18), or she might go to Keeneland."

Bred in Kentucky, Hoop of Colour is the last registered foal out of Grade 2 winner Surya (Unbridled), making her a half-sister to Grade 1 queen Aruna (Mr. Greeley). Her second dam is Group 3-placed listed victress Wild Planet (Nureyev), who is also the granddam of fellow listed scorer and French classic-placed Honoured Guest (Danehill).

This is the same female family as Grade 1-winning millionaires Sabin (Lyphard), Film Maker (Dynaformer) and Miss Oceana (Alydar).

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