Arabian Hope battled to a head victory in the $64,000 Ganton S. at York in England in the stakes debut for the 3-year-old Distorted Humor filly.
Arabian Hope is Distorted Humor’s 140th lifetime stakes winner and is one of his 11 stakes horses in 2017. Distorted Humor is North America’s second-leading active sire of stakes winners, behind only Giant’s Causeway.
The Ganton outcome wasn’t determined until the the final strides. Arabian Hope tracked smartly in fourth through the first half-mile, when the field straightened for the long stretch run.
Battling between horses the entire straightaway, Arabian Hope’s chances looked slim with a 100 yards to run, but the the filly dug in and passed Golden Stunner in the last few jumps to snag the win (VIDEO).
“She’s was quite tight for room, but she’s got a big heart and is tough,” commented rider Josephine Gordon of the last furlong. “I thought she might be a little out of her depth, but she got an easy tow into the race and took it all in her stride.”
Trained by Saeed bin Suroor for Godolphin, Arabian Hope was a $550,000 by her owners at the 2015 Keeneland September Yearling sale. The regally-bred filly is the second stakes winner out of Achieving, who is the sister Hollywood Starlet (G1) winner Streaming and black-type winners Treasuring and Cascading. Arabian Hope’s third dam Better Than Honour produced Belmont S. (G1) winners Rags to Riches and Jazil.
