Conservative has worked a couple of times since our last update, the first time we worked him at faster paces he actually went OK.

He was a bit disappointing the second time and was actually a bit sore behind afterwards. It was nothing serious, and we didn’t need to get the vet to take a look or anything, after a session of physio he was all good. I think he was just feeling the effects of being back in work after the break.

It's been really hard to assess the fitness levels of the Southwell horses as they’ve all been poorly, and the few we’ve run from this yard have run miserably. We’ve had them scoped post-race, and they have all come back clean, so we are at least free of the virus now which is a relief. Basically they’re not as fit as they need to be yet, this virus knocked them all for six and we’re now just trying to get their fitness levels back up to scratch.

We’ll work Conservative again this Saturday [2nd September] and this will give us the opportunity to assess where he’s at in terms of his fitness. Once I’ve seen that piece of work, got the feedback from the rider and we look at how he comes out of the work, I’ll be much better placed to say where we’re at and how far off a return he might be, so we’ll keep you posted.

Scott Dixon, Coral Racing Club Trainer