Pompay opts to run Khozall in another overnight race

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While the temptation to run a horse in a stakes is understandable after she has won her last two starts by a combined 18 1/2 lengths, trainer Terri Pompay has opted to take a more conservative route with her promising filly Khozall.

Pompay is bypassing this Sunday’s $100,000 Any Limit Stakes with Khozall for Friday’s theoretically easier main event, also for 3-year-old fillies. The race will be decided under allowance and optional claiming conditions for a $91,000 purse.

A field of 10 was entered for the seven-furlong sprint, although Amor Fati is entered in the Any Limit as well.

Khozall has improved with each successive start since launching her career by finishing second to the more experienced Blueish in her debut on Jan. 5. She returned four weeks later to register a very popular and easy 5 3/4-length maiden win against open company for which she earned a 77 Beyer Speed Figure. She moved forward again when smoking statebred allowance opposition by nearly 13 lengths and posting an 81 Beyer stretching to seven furlongs for the first time on Feb. 22.

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“She’s really stepped her game up since her first start and is doing very well at the moment,” said Pompay. “I thought about putting her in the stakes on Sunday but decided that might have been throwing her to the wolves a little early. I’m not sure she’s ready to beat a horse like R Harper Rose at this point, and the purse difference between the stakes and this race is not all that much, less than $10,000.”

Pompay said her hopes are to build Khozall’s confidence with another victory Friday before taking on stakes competition a little further down the road. Pompay also acknowledged Friday’s headliner is not a cushy spot either.

“This race came up pretty tough but it looks like Amor Fati, who has speed like our horse, is going to come out to run in the stakes, which I’m happy about,” Pompay said. “And obviously I’m not thrilled she drew the rail either. Sometimes it can be a no-win situation because if you don’t break well, you’re going to get all the dirt in your face, and if you do, a couple of others might be pressuring you right from the start.

“She likes to be forwardly placed, so I don’t think we’re going to have much choice but to send her out of there.”

Even if Amor Fati, who won her only previous start in gate-to-wire fashion by 5 1/2 lengths here last month, defects to the Any Limit, there are plenty of other key contenders for Khozall to deal with in the lineup. The group that includes Miss Justify, who will be making her first start since joining trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn earlier this winter; stakes winner Hot Beach; and the lightly raced but talented Sing a Little Song.

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