This time next year, trainer Robbie Laing hopes to be preparing Lord Of The Sky for Royal Ascot.
But for now, he is happy to see the four-year-old recovering from a heel injury which ruled him out of the Stradbroke Handicap on June 6.
Laing has taken Lord Of The Sky to the beach near his Cranbourne property with the salt water helping heal the wound with his trainer confident he will be ready to race again in the Sir John Monash Stakes at Caulfield on July 4.
Lord Of The Sky would then head to Bletchingly Stakes at Caulfield on July 25 with his main target the first Group One race of the Melbourne spring, the Memsie Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on August 29.
“He’ll go to the Bletchingly and then I’d love to run him in the Memsie and let him run all the stayers off their legs around Caulfield,” Laing said.
Now that Laing has worked out Lord Of The Sky’s health problems he will resist running the rising five-year-old over the hotter, more humid months of summer.
“He’s a thin skinned horse that was sweating and with his asthma on those humid days it didn’t suit,” Laing said.
“That’s why in Sydney, where it was cold and raining, he went super and it was pretty cold in Adelaide too.
“So I think early spring, break, get him ready for next autumn and hopefully go to the King’s Stand this time next year.”
Lord Of The Sky has finished second in his past two Group One contests, getting run down by Chautauqua in the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick on April 6 before being collared by Flamberge in the Goodwood at Morphettville last month.
He was unplaced in the Oakleigh Plate in February with the winner, Shamal Wind, running in the King’s Stand on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).
