Phoenix Of Dreams was training well and we were looking forward to getting him on the track, but just a few days before he was supposed to run he came out of his box quite sore, so we had to abort that plan and find out what was wrong.

We had the vet look at him, as well as the farrier and the physio, and all three came to the unilateral conclusion that Phoenix Of Dreams got cast in his box. This is when a horse lies down in his box, gets struck in a corner or against the wall, and then struggles to get up, and crashes about a bit to do so, pulling and bruising various parts of his body. So he’s just quite sore all over, but hopefully with no serious damage done anywhere.

The best thing to do is for us to back off him from a training perspective, give him a break over Christmas, let his aches and pains heal, and then bring him back and train him for his three year old career next season.

He’s already shown us on the gallops that he has plenty of ability, and he will grow a bit more and strengthen over the winter, and we can look forward to seeing him on the racecourse next spring. I’ll keep all the Club members updated over the next few weeks on his progress.

John Quinn, Coral Racing Club Trainer