Prospect Wells

Prospect Wells produced a fine performance to win on his seasonal debut and on his first start in Britain for his new trainer Howard Johnson, in a 12-furlong listed race at Pontefract on Sunday. The pace was steady enough early on, and Paul Mulrennan settled Prospect Wells in behind the leader. He picked up well to take it up a furlong out, and battled on gamely all the way to the line to withstand the late surge of the odds-on favourite Nanton, who looked like he was coming with a winning run, so much so that he traded at 1.05 in-running.

There was a lot to like about this performance from Prospect Wells. He was fairly keen early on, which was probably down to his freshness and the steady pace that developed, and he looked a little unbalanced inside the final furlong, perhaps because of the fast ground, he is probably better with a bit of cut, but he did really well to win despite appearing to hit the rail at least once. This was his first run since May 2009, he apparently nearly died after being gelded, he was a Group 2 winner for Andre Fabre in France and he was second to Montmartre in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris in 2008. He stayed on really well here, he should stay further and this should bring him on a lot.

A son of Sadler’s Wells, it looks like he could do well for the remainder of the season. The handicapper raised him just 3lb for this, and his new rating of 108 could significantly under-estimate his ability. He will be interesting wherever he goes next, especially if there is a little bit of cut in the ground.

20th June 2010