French import Colonia impresses in Hatoof

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Cool Beans put away the pace-pressers and briefly opened a lead three-sixteenths of a mile from the finish of the $100,000 Hatoof Stakes. Then Colonia hit her stride and ran Cool Beans down like she was a conditioned claimer.

Flashing an impressive turn of foot under jockey Joe Bravo, Colonia ran her final furlong in 11.79 seconds and won going away while making her North American debut for trainer Graham Motion.

“Graham called me this morning he was really excited about this filly,” said Bravo. “That was a pretty eye-opening move. She really took over turning for home.”

Colonia, by Champs Elysees out of Clara Luna, by Muhtathir, was only a maiden winner from five starts in France and had finished 11th and a distant fifth in two turf starts after racing three times on all-weather tracks. But both those races came on heavy ground, and through some combination of American-style racing, first Lasix, and Motion’s deft hand, Colonia looked like the real thing Saturday.

Last around the far turn and down the backstretch as Cool Beans went in 23.72 and 47.61 seconds, Colonia moved up a couple of positions while glued to the rail past the half-mile pole. At the three-furlong marker the filly really began getting into gear as Bravo, with the horse to make whatever move he wanted, steered right and got to the far outside. Colonia cornered like an old pro on left-handed turns, bounded up to the leader with an extremely exuberant stride, and swept to a 1 3/4-length victory. She stopped the timer in 1:42.23 for 1 1/16 miles over firm, fast ground and paid $10.20 to win. Cool Beans, the 5-2 favorite, was no match for the winner but held second by 1 1/4 lengths over Go Noni Go.

Colonia has a bunch of owners: Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, Maurice Lagasse, and Haras d’Etreham. She’ll meet better horses than she faced in the Hatoof, but it looks like the group has come up with something interesting for the summer.