Phoenix Of Dreams was sadly the bridesmaid yet again last Friday as he came home in second place on his all-weather debut at Southwell for trainers John & Sean Quinn.

The result completed a hat-trick of seconds for the club's three-year-old, in what was also his first run over six furlongs. There was a sense of the unknown going into the race on Friday, but Phoenix Of Dreams had been in good form at home and his recent pieces of work suggested that he would be fine stepping down in trip, so the Quinn team were confident of a big run.

As expected, our ultra-consistent gelding put in another solid performance, in which he did pretty much everything as we'd have hoped. He broke sharply from the gates under Jason Hart and settled nicely in a prominent position next to the rail as they went through the first couple of furlongs. As they turned for home, Phoenix Of Dreams was still travelling strongly in fourth place, however, the well fancied 1/2 market favourite, Smart Hero, was moving just as well one spot behind.

It was 100/1 shot Maris Angel who lead the pack as they entered the final couple of furlongs, but as they passed the final furlong marker, it was a battle solely between Phoenix Of Dreams and Smart Hero. In the final stages of the race, it was James Tate's three-year-old who found more when it mattered most and he went on to win comfortably at the fifth time of asking by four lengths, with the third place runner another three and a quarter lengths behind Phoenix Of Dreams.

Phoenix Of Dreams' ten lucky Owners for the Day each got to take home £156 in prize money thanks to his second place finish, and we were delighted to host two of them who could make it to sunny Southwell on Friday.

Phoenix Of Dreams' Owners for the Day with jockey Jason Hart 

Immediately following the race, in his post-race interview, Jason Hart said that "we've bumped into one there" and that the belief that Phoenix Of Dreams would benefit for the step down in trip was franked as over seven furlongs he "would be pulling a little bit hard but dropping back to six furlongs allowed him to get into a nice rhythm". The jockey, who was partnering the club's gelding for the fourth time, also said that "he acted well on the surface, so we shouldn't be scared of coming back here".

Post-race summary from trainer Sean Quinn

"I feel so sorry for Phoenix Of Dreams because he’s ran another solid race and just bumped into a slightly better horse on the day.

It might actually turn out to be quite a decent race that throws up plenty of winners, because speaking to a few of those who finished behind us, it seems they think their horses are pretty good, so maybe the winner and our horse have just performed slightly better than their marks.

The good thing is, Phoenix Of Dreams has proved that he can compete over 6f, and he’s also shown that he can handle an all-weather surface, so that makes life much easier for us when it comes to finding suitable races, and if we wanted to, we could carry on with him into the winter months.

He’s come out of the race absolutely fine, so we’ll give him a couple of days rest and have a good look at the programme next week and see if there are any suitable opportunities coming up for him in the next fortnight."