Khozmore a bit late to get started, but making up for lost time

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kathleen O’Connell has developed more than her share of talented horses during a long and successful career that has produced 2,283 victories, 83 of those coming in stakes races. Her latest star is the undefeated 3-year-old Florida-bred filly Khozmore, who gives every indication she will add to O’Connell’s stakes total.

Khozmore won Thursday for the third time in as many tries, drawing away to a 3 3/4-length allowance triumph.

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Khozmore, a daughter of Khozan owned by Windylea Farm, did not begin her career until August. Her wins have come by a combined margin of 14 1/2 lengths.

“She’s a very nice filly who we had big expectations for, big stallion stakes hopes for, as a 2-year-old,” said O’Connell, a Calder mainstay for nearly three decades before relocating to Gulfstream when Calder closed its doors earlier this year. “But she had some growing issues here and there, which stopped her from being a 2-year-old. Fortunately, the owners are wonderful and allowed me to give her all the time she needed.”

O’Connell said that despite Khozmore’s recent success, she’s going to continue to take things slow and easy for the remainder of her 3-year-old campaign.

“She loves her job, she’s got a good mind, is very professional – everything a trainer would want,” said O’Connell. “And Khozans can go about every distance. But we’re going to continue to take small steps at a time. We’ll make sure she comes out of this race okay before looking down the road at her next start. I still wouldn’t want to stretch her to a mile or around two turns yet, with only three races underneath her, and it’s been a limited venue down here as far as getting races for 3-year-olds. Fortunately, she does have some allowance conditions left since the second of her three wins came against restricted company in a Florida-bred race.”

O’Connell has 36 horses bedded down locally, although she’s about ready to start splitting up her stable to make her annual winter sojourn to Tampa Bay Downs.

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“I always kept about 30-35 horses around here during the winter when I was at Calder,” O’Connell said. “We’ll send some of the cheaper horses to Tampa and I’m expecting to eventually get some grass horses down from New York from Windylea and David Donk, both of whom have been wonderful to me.”