Phoenix Of Dreams skips Wetherby with Northumberland Plate Festival next on the agenda
We were planning to run Phoenix Of Dreams at Wetherby tomorrow, but we are just concerned the ground is going to be too quick for him.
He did a piece of work last week on our grass gallop which is getting on the quick side of good now, and Jason Hart who rode him just said he was just changing his legs a lot and not really letting himself go, so we’ve come to the conclusion that he’s not completely at home on firm ground. We did think this would be the case as he’s a big horse who hits the ground very hard, so we’ve decided to skip Wetherby and wait until we find some more suitable conditions for him.
There is a novice race over 7f at Newcastle on the Friday of the Northumberland Plate Festival, so all being well, I think that’s where we’ll head with him. It is a good few weeks away, but we’d rather wait for the right race than rush him, and we’ve always felt that he’d handle an artificial surface well, so we have no qualms about running him on the all-weather up at Newcastle.
His work at home has been very good over the last few weeks, and we think he’s developing mentally and physically all the time, so we are really looking forward to getting back on the racecourse with him very soon.
Sean Quinn, Coral Racing Club Trainer