Del Mar Oaks could be next for Colonia

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Graham Motion has several horses under consideration for stakes races on the Aug. 11 Arlington Million card, but Colonia, a sharp winner of the $100,000 Hatoof Stakes here Saturday in her North American debut, is not among them.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the filly. But Motion and some of the same connections that own Colonia already have the filly Secret Message pointed to the Pucker Up Stakes here Aug. 11. And Colonia ran well enough Saturday – and had impressed Motion sufficiently even before the race – that a trip to California for the Grade 1, $300,000 Del Mar Oaks on Aug. 18 is under strong consideration.

Colonia came from last of 10 to win the 1 1/16-mile Hatoof by 1 3/4 lengths over the very decent filly Cool Beans. Ther performance produced an initial winning Beyer Speed Figure of 86, and the visual impression was stronger than the number.

“I felt pretty good about running her,” Motion said. “She didn’t necessarily have to win, but I’d have been surprised if she wasn’t competitive. She’s got a great turn of foot. I’d think she goes a little farther.”

Colonia had won only once in five French starts, and that on the winter all-weather circuit. Her two turf races earlier this year were poor, but both came on heavy ground, and the bloodstock agent Nicolas de Watrigant, partnering with Brad Weisbord’s BSW Bloodstock to help American connections acquire a portion of the filly, insisted Colonia would be a different horse on faster ground.

“He was adamant she was crying out for firm turf,” Weisbord said.

Weisbord said Colonia, by Champs Elysees, was the least expensive European purchase in which he’d been involved the last few years, and she appears to have been well bought.

Secret Message, the filly pointed to the Pucker Up, caught a boggy course when second in the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico and lost all chance at the start when fourth June 16 in the Regret Stakes at Churchill.

Meanwhile, Motion said he intends to run Manhattan Stakes winner Spring Quality in the Arlington Million. Spring Quality, a lightly raced 6-year-old who had a host of nagging physical issues early in his career, sprang an 18-1 upset in the Manhattan, a race from which Catcho En Die emerged to win the Stars and Stripes Stakes here Saturday. Spring Quality had his second post-Manhattan drill when he worked six furlongs over turf July 6 at Fair Hill in 1:14.

Motion said that Ultra Brat, who had been scheduled to start in the James Penny Stakes last week at Parx Racing before the race was canceled because of heat, will be considered for the Beverly D. Stakes, while 3-year-old Untamed Domain could run in the Secretariat pending his performance in the Kent Stakes at Delaware Park.