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Costume wires rivals in Santa Ana

Costume (far right) just barely lasts in a crowded finish to the Santa Ana (Benoit Photo) Juddmonte Farms' homebred filly COSTUME (GB) (Danehill) often displayed a tracking or closing racing style early in her career in Europe, but failed to distinguish herself when employing that strategy in her first four starts in the United States. The switch to a more aggressive rider in Garrett Gomez has seen Costume's fortunes turn around. The pair teamed up for a pace-pressing victory last month in the Buena Vista H. (G2), and the winning continued on Easter Sunday with a wire-to-wire score in the $150,000 Santa Ana H. (G2) at Santa Anita. Taking advantage of a paceless affair, Gomez put Costume on the lead from the start of the 1 1/8-mile turf event, and the four-year-old proceeded to rattle off fractions of :23 4/5, :48 1/5 and 1:12 1/5. Costume drew off to a two-length advantage with a furlong to go, but the lead was tenuous as Immortelle (Brz) (Vettori) and Lavender Sky (Mt. Livermore) closed steadily on her outside while Costume began to get leg weary. Costume bore out late into those two rivals under left-handed whipping in the final strides, but the bumping came too late to prevent either rival from catching the Bobby Frankel trainee, and a jockey's objection from Immortelle's rider, David Flores, was disallowed.

"Inside the sixteenth pole I drifted out to her (Immortelle), but when we made contact, we were right on top of the wire, and I had put my stick away," Gomez said.

For Frankel, it was his eighth victory in the last 17 runnings of the Santa Ana.

Costume's head victory, achieved in a time of 1:48 over the firm turf, was worth $6.60, $4.20 and $2.80 at 2-1. Immortelle, an 11-1 chance, returned $8.80 and $4.80, while 2-1 favorite Lavender Sky, a head behind Immortelle, paid $2.60 to show. The $1 exacta returned $34.60, the $1 trifecta $99.20, and the $1 superfecta (6-8-1-9) with Foxysox (GB) (Foxhound) brought back $541.40. Foxysox, who rallied inside the top three and missed hitting the board by a head, was followed by Kris' Sis (Forestry), Persian Express (Bahri), Colina Verde (Brz) (Know Heights [Ire]) and I Can See (Flying Chevron). Black Mamba (NZ) (Black Minnaloushe), the morning-line favorite, was withdrawn.

With her victory in the Santa Ana, Costume's career record improves to 12-3-1-3 with earnings of $309,271. Last season in England, she placed second in the Oak Tree S. (Eng-G3) and third in the Sandringham H. at Royal Ascot.

Bred in Great Britain, the bay miss is the first foal from the Group 3-winning Dance Dress (Nureyev) and has an unraced three-year-old half-sister named Party Frock (Oasis Dream [GB]). Dance Dress is closely related to stakes heroine and multiple Group 1-placed Most Precious (Nureyev), who is responsible for 1996 Ramona H. (G1) victress Matiara (Bering [GB]), stakes winner Precious Ring (Bering [GB]), Group 2 star Marathon (Diesis [GB]) and 2002 Fort Marcy H. (G3) victor Pyrus (Mr. Prospector).

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