Phoenix Of Dreams made his way back to Newcastle on Friday, as he aimed to record back-to-back victories for the first time in his career, over the same course and distance that he scored at last time out. 

Our five-year-old gelding has been showing improvement with every run so far this year, having finished in the places in two of his last five contests and winning a race earlier this month. The fact he has been able to feature twice in January, February and now March has been really beneficial and is one of the key reasons trainers John & Sean Quinn believe he's been able to show more on the track.

Unfortunately things didn't go his way from the start of the race on Friday, as he reared up just prior to the gates opening which led to him losing a length or so and kicking the race off from the back of the field. From there, Jason Hart had to roll with the hand he had been dealt and drop Phoenix Of Dreams in at the back of the field, whilst also bringing him into cover on the opposite rail.

Despite the tardy start, Phoenix Of Dreams attached himself to the rear of the field and tracked well in behind, albeit still looking very keen and clearly wanting to get on with things. The pacemakers at the front of the field didn't suit our runner either as they set a very slow gallop and that meant that Jason had to do whatever he could to try get Phoenix Of Dreams to settle. As the field entered the second half of the race it began to open up and that gave our pair the chance to make a move, with Jason stalking the eventual winner, Anthropologist, through the middle of the pack.

Unfortunately the bird had already flown, and despite Phoenix Of Dreams managing to pick up a few places, he was no match for the others and eventually hit the finish line in fourth place, landing his 10 Owners for the Day £780 in prize money. 

WATCH: Jason Hart remains positive about Phoenix Of Dreams going forward after luckless run

We caught up with trainer Sean Quinn after the race to see how Phoenix Of Dreams was getting on and this is what he had to say:

"Phoenix Of Dreams returned to the yard in good spirits, he pulled out absolutely fine on Saturday morning.

He was a little bit luckless at Newcastle on Friday, having been drawn on the far side, with the entire field wanting to run down the stand side rail. Jason had to drop him in behind and ride him patiently, which we've enjoyed success with in the past and how he clearly likes to be ridden. However we just didn't get much luck in running, there was very little room for him to squeeze through towards the back end of the race and given the way he had to switch sides right from the off, he didn't have enough left in the tank. Had we got a clear run inside the final furlong, I think we'd have gone really close. 

The positive side of things is that he never gave up, and although he didn't have the pace to match the winner at the end of the contest, he's still hit the line strongly and picked up an extra spot in the final strides. He's running right at the top of his game at the moment and I hope he'll be winning again soon."

All being well, it hopefully won't be too long before we see Phoenix Of Dreams back out on the track again, and it'll be interesting to see if Sean Quinn opts to run him on turf next given that the season is now officially underway or if he looks to run him again on the all-weather. Stay tuned for the next update on the Coral Racing Club to find out the latest.