Without A Prayer

As well as the winner, Mac Love, the other horse to take out of the Diomed Stakes at Epsom on Friday was Without A Prayer. Ralph Beckett’s horse got a nice run through the race, just behind the leader Deposer on the rail, inside Confront, and he travelled well into the home straight. However, his rider Seb Sanders was looking for a gap fully from three furlongs out, but Ryan Moore on Confront kept him in, legitimately, just held his ground, and there was never enough room between the leader Deposer and the rail against Epsom’s camber. The net result was that Without A Prayer couldn’t get out on time to deliver a challenge. Sanders eventually took him back well inside the final furlong, but by that stage the race was well over, Mac Love had flown down the outside and Confront had taken Deposer’s measure, and still Without A Prayer couldn’t get out, he just kept on among horses to finish fourth.

The son of Intikhaab is deserving of another chance. It is impossible to know how he would have fared had he got out on time, but he may have put it up to Mac Love, and had he even got close to that rival, it would have been a career best. He won a listed race on the all-weather at Deauville last December, he acquitted himself really well over that distance on two occasions at Nad Al Sheba in the spring, and he wasn’t at all disgraced in the Winter Derby at Lingfield in March when he finished fifth, beaten just four lengths in a race that just keeps on looking better and betting, with the first four, Scintillo, Premio Loco, Bronze Cannon and Halicarnasus all going on to run huge races since. Without A Prayer is entered in a nine-furlong listed race at Leopardstown next Thursday and, if he makes the trip, the hint should be taken. In the longer term, he should be up to at least winning at Group 3 level, possibly even at Group 2 level over nine or 10 furlongs.

5th June 2009