OLDSMAR, Fla. – Coco as in Chanel, the winner of the $100,000 Stormy Blues Stakes last June at Pimlico, turned in a strong 4-year-old debut Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs, winning a second-level, $21,250 allowance by three-quarters of a length over Sweet Nkosi. Coco as in Chanel ($5.80) finished the five-furlong race on firm turf in 56.63 seconds after carving out fast fractions of 21.35 and 44.77. Coco as in Chanel was making her first start since September, when she showed speed before finishing last in the $100,000 Christiecat Stakes on the inner turf course at Belmont Park. The daughter of Awesome Again started her career last year with three losses on dirt but has excelled on turf, with three wins and a third-place finish in five starts. She’s earned $101,130 for trainer Tom Proctor and breeder and owner Heider Family Stables LLC. Scott Heider said he was concerned that Coco as in Chanel would be a work or two short for Sunday’s race because she originally was being pointed toward an allowance at Fair Grounds later this month but had to change plans due to the equine herpesvirus outbreak at the New Orleans track. “It was exciting, the way she came back,” Heider said. “We thought she’d be short. She got pressed really hard on the lead, and as it turned out, Coco was more fit than we thought because she kind of rebroke at the top of the lane and wasn’t going to be denied. “We gave her a vacation [last fall], and we knew from her training the last four or five weeks that she was really training as well as last summer, so we were encouraged that we had recharged the battery.” Coco as in Chanel was produced by the Boston Harbor mare Surf N Sand, who won the Prairie Rose Stakes at Prairie Meadows and the Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn Park in 2004 on her way to $244,655 in earnings for the Heider family. Heider said he will look for a turf-sprint stakes for Coco as in Chanel’s next start.