Zayat, Romans Want to See Prayer for Relief in Pegasus
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Photo: Jack Coady/Coady Photography
Prayer for Relief winning the 2013 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3).
To anyone holding a gate pass to the $12 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1), Zayat Stables and trainer Dale Romans have a starter for you.
In the aftermath of an eye-catching workout Jan. 14 at Gulfstream Park, Romans decided Prayer for Relief deserves a start in the Jan. 28 inaugural running of the Pegasus World Cup. Ahmed Zayat isn't one of the 12 stakeholders in the Pegasus but is making his $2 million earner available to those few who have yet to secure a horse to represent them in the world's richest race.
The 9-year-old son of Jump Start , who captured the Iowa Derby (G3), West Virginia Derby (G2), and Super Derby (G2) in succession when trained by Bob Baffert in 2011, breezed five furlongs at Gulfstream in :59 1/5, the second-fastest workout of 46 recorded at the distance Saturday. Prayer for Relief won his last graded stakes in the 2013 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3) and placed in the grade 1 Woodward Stakes in 2014.
"He worked so good Saturday. He's doing so well," said Romans. "He'd just come back from Dubai and it took him a couple races. He may not be as good as he once was, but I think he can be as good once as he ever was." After the work, Romans said Zayat asked him whether he felt the horse fit in the Pegasus World Cup.
"I told him not to duck anyone," Romans said.