Currency Swap returns to action at Saratoga

Seeking a spot to bring her first career Grade 1 winner

back to the races, trainer Terri Pompay found one at her -- and her horse's --

favorite track.

A native of Saratoga Springs, New York, now based in New Jersey, Pompay will saddle Currency Swap in

Friday's

opener at Saratoga, an optional claiming/allowance for three-year-olds

and up going six furlongs.

Making his first start in 9 1/2 months, the High

Cotton four-year-old drew post three in the six-horse field with regular rider Rajiv

Maragh aboard.

"We're basically just trying to get a good starting race into him that he

could be effective in," Pompay explained. "He hasn't run in a long time, and

we'd like to get him back on track and, hopefully, run in a stake toward the end

of the meet. Any allowance race is going to be tough, because that's how they

are at Saratoga, but it's not like putting him right in a stake. At least maybe

we won't get the real heavy heads."

Owned by Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, Currency

Swap has earned three of his four career wins at Saratoga, including the 2011 Hopeful and

last year's Amsterdam. Also a debut winner at the Spa in

2011, he was sixth as the favorite in the King's Bishop last summer.

"He's been here since last weekend," Pompay said of

Currency Swap. "He loves it here. He's a hambone, you know? He walks around the

paddock like he owns it. He's always been good here. He loves it here, and he's

got the big, wide turns on the track. He's just very comfortable here. I'm happy

to have him back."

Currency Swap hasn't raced since finishing seventh of eight

in the Gallant Bob at Parx Racing last September. A week after the

race, he underwent tie-back surgery to fix what had been a slowly developing

breathing problem.

"They basically tie the flap back," Pompay said. "He had

one flap that, even when he won the Amsterdam, was starting to get lazy, and

that didn't let him get his air totally. He still won even though he was a

little bit handicapped at that point.

"You really can't do the surgery until they're pretty far

along, and it gets a little paralyzed," she added. "We kind of had to wait.

After the race he ran at Philadelphia, it was evident that he was laying perfect

and trying, he just had his head up and was struggling to breathe a little bit,

and we decided it was time to do it."

The surgery was performed by Dr. Eric Parente.

"He did a great job. It's very neat," Pompay said. "A lot

of horses can't come back to their full potential after this surgery, but he's

doing great. He's healthy, eating great, looks great, and doesn't make a noise.

Even last year, while it was in the process of getting paralyzed, he was making

sound and we could hear it.

"He's a big, heavy kind of horse, a heavily muscled horse, so he might need

the race. That's why I was trying to find an easier spot for him, but he hasn't

shown me anything to think he won't be where he was."

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