[Solved] Essentials X5 - Text on an Elliptical Path

Okay, so I have text-on-path, and the path is a circle (ellipse) with no fill and no outline.  In many ways this acts like a group, except it cannot be "ungrouped".

I need to change the fill colour for the text, but I cannot select only the text and not the path.  Changing the fill for the text causes the path shape to fill as well.

Are the only ways out of this to either convert to curves (in which case the text is no longer editable), or start again with the right text colour in the first place?  Neither option seems very satisfactory.

Yes, I'm using X5 Essentials - I can't afford upgrades (sorry) and it works great on Win7!