After six months off the track, Conservative returned to action at Southwell on Thursday for the Coral Racing Club and trainer Scott Dixon.

Despite finishing down the field in 8th, he was only four lengths off the eventual winner, and given the fact he was racing over a mile, when ideally he might prefer a little further these days, there was still plenty of positives to take from the run.

Watch the latest video update from Kat (above), Conservative's work rider, to hear more about how he's come out of the race.

Race review

Conservative took an early lead under Elisha Whittington, who brought the gelding to the front from the outset, coming in from a wide draw of nine to sit one off the rail. 

He was closely followed for the first half of the race on the inside by the favourite and Tim Easterby-trained Leap Day, with One More Dream just on his outside for company too.

As they turned for home, Elisha had to get to work on Conservative to keep him up to his task, which he did so gallantly until they reached the two furlong marker. It was at that point that Leap Day and Goldsmith took over proceedings and Conservative's efforts began to peter out.

As a few others finished strongly from the back off the field, Conservative eventually crossed the line in 8th-place.

What next for Conservative?

The good news is that Conservative has come out of the race in decent order, and he could well run again before the end of the month, with trainer Scott Dixon aiming for a return over the same course and distance on the 30th January.