Live In The Dream will head to the Coral Charge at Sandown on Eclipse day next after returning from his disappointing Achilles Stakes showing at Haydock with bruising.

Adam West’s Nunthorpe hero was a 5/4 favourite for the Listed event on Merseyside having gone close on his seasonal return at the track only two weeks previous.

However, he stumbled leaving the stalls and had to be picked off his nose by jockey Sean Kirrane, with West believing that is where the five-year-old suffered his knocks and ultimately put paid to any chance of winning the race.

“He’s been checked out thoroughly and he’s got a bit of bruising on his off-side and lower rib cage,” said West.

“He actually hit the deck quite hard (leaving the stalls) and he had grass stains up to his knees when he jumped, when he caught the stalls or maybe one of the other horses caught him with a foot down the off-side.

“He’s not too sore, but it would have been enough to scupper a bold show like we had hoped.

These things happen

“It’s just unfortunate that these things happen in racing. The headwind wouldn’t have helped but ultimately his confidence was shot – even though his class got him back to the front, you can’t win a sprint race after falling on your nose at the gates.”

With the injury not set to keep Live In The Dream on the sidelines for any significant time, West is keen to scrub a line through Haydock and continue with the course mapped out back to York for the defence of his Nunthorpe Stakes title in August.

That will see him head to Esher on July 6th, where the son of Prince Of Lir will bid to go one better than his Scurry Stakes second over the course and distance back in 2022.

West continued: “He will come through it and he will be fine. The plan will still be to go to the Coral Charge.

“There is enough time to recover from that (before Sandown) but of course we will just take things sensibly.

“We’re hoping to go to Sandown and then on to York. It’s racing unfortunately and sometimes things like Saturday happen.”