Trainer Robbie Laing will give Lord Of The Sky at least two months rest after a shoulder injury was detected following the speedy sprinters two recent failures as an odds on favourite.
Lord Of The Sky will rest to recover from a shoulder injury. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Punters who took the short odds at Caulfield and Moonee Valley will have to wait until late in the Spring for a chance to get their money back.
After blitzing a smart field first up in the Group 3 $135,000 Polytrack Sir John Monash Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield on July 5, followers lined up to take the $1.40 before Lord Of The Sky faded in the straight to finish fourth to Thiamandi in the Group 3 $150,000 Slickpix Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield on July 26.
Then Laing was looking for a quick redemption and sent the big bay out the following week as an odds on favourite again at $1.90 in a 1000m Handicap at Moonee Valley but after racing with the leaders he shortened stride to finish fourth for the second week in a row.
Laing then had Lord Of The Sky checked out thoroughly by his vet who found a tear in his off-front shoulder muscle.
“The vet said before I do the ECG do you know he has badly torn a muscle in his shoulder and I said ‘no and I didn’t have any idea’,” Laing told the Herald Sun.
“He pulled up panting after the race, like a pain blow and I thought he’d gone shin sore again but he hadn’t.”
The Cranbourne trainer is confident that there will be no long term damage and the torn muscle will repair itself with rest.
“He needs rest and he’ll come back as good as ever,” Laing said.
“He’ll have to give him the rest of August and even the all of September out. He is only a young horse.”
Lord Of The Sky has shown in the past that he is loaded with plenty of brilliance as he displayed with his four and half lengths win in the Sir John Monash Stakes and Laing was hoping to test him at Group 1 level during the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
The Danerich entire was also at his brilliant best with a six and half lengths win over 1000m at Caulfield earlier in the year.
The lightly raced four year old has won five of his ten starts and has collected over $270,000 in prizemoney for his connections.
