We caught up with your Coral Racing Club trainer, Joe Tizzard, at Plumpton Racecourse earlier this week as he provided us with an update on West End Boy. 

"Last week he did something all horses do from time to time, and gave himself a bump on one of his legs, in his case his rear, right leg. The leg did swell up, but he’s only just lame on it, so we’ve kept him moving on the horse-walker, and he’s on antibiotics, just to reduce the inflammation.

This is a very common occurrence with horses, they just kick or knock themselves, cut themselves, pull a muscle, but there’s nothing untoward about it. Go to any yard and you’ll find horses with little niggles every day of the week, like professional athletes, footballers, no one is ever 100% fit all the time.

Every morning I’ll have the horses trotted up in front of me, and I can guarantee there will always be a handful not sound, all we can do is hope it doesn’t happen to the good ones in the days leading up to a big target. For a young horse like this, there will plenty of options so I’m not worried at all. He’s had his flu jab like most of ours so we’ll be full steam ahead once he’s fully recovered.

As far as his intended first run at Exeter on New Year’s Day goes, we’ll just have to see how quickly he is sound again."

Watch the full video to hear more from Joe on West End Boy.