Well Positioned: Another Pompa Champion
Paul Pompa and trainer Pat Reynolds have enjoyed a very successful working relationship. In the last few years Pompa seems to have been lucky when it comes to buying horses. Last year, it was Big Brown that stole the show and had hordes of owners phoning him to purchase Big Brown. He finally sold seventy-five percent of Big Brown to IEAH Stables, but he doesn’t seem as eager to sell his latest eye catching horse racing phenomenon, Well Positioned. Pat Reynolds trains Pompa’s horses, and the combination of natural racing ability and quality training has been paying off.
Well Positioned was bred by Adena Springs in Ontario and was sired by Awesome Again. During his horse racing career, Awesome Again caused quite a stir. He was sired by Deputy Minister and is out of the mare Primal Force. Major horse racing events won by this spectacular horse, include the Jim Dandy Stakes, Whitney Handicap, Saratoga Breeder’s Cup Handicap, Stephen Foster Handicap, Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap, Queen’s Plate, Breeders’ Cup Classic and he was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2001. During his stud career, thirty-one of his progeny have gone on to win stakes races, including Ghostzapper, Round Pond, Ginger Punch and Toccet. Well Positioned’s dam, Taxible, was sired by Hail a Cab (1988 Grade 1 Spinster Stakes winner) and is out of the mare Fifth Avenue Lady. She did not have an extremely successful career as a racehorse, but being half sister to Islam, a Group 1 champion, does give her credibility.
On the 22nd of November 2008, Well Positioned won his second start in spectacular fashion. Ridden by Javier Castellano, jockey and horse seem to have forged the right racing relationship, as Castellano steered Well Positioned to victory. The fact that he won by just over fourteen lengths against a tough field of equally capable horses is impressive, but the fact that he covered a mile in a time of 1:38 3/5 was spectacular. The times clocked for the stakes horses, who ran in the following event, was stopped at 1:40.
Even though the offers for Well Positioned have been coming in, it seems that Paul Pompa might take a different route with this breathtaking two-year-old. After the race, he expressed his yearning to win one of the big races in his own racing colors, opening up the option that he could be holding onto Well Positioned a little bit longer. He most certainly won’t be rushing to sell him, like he did with Big Brown. A little more experienced and wiser, Pompa has not refused offers, but will be speaking to Pat Reynolds and making a decision from there.
