LIVE IN THE DREAM, the horse who ran out a fairytale winner of the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes in 2023, will no longer be trained by a ‘gutted’ Adam West.
Owners Steve and Jolene de’Lemos have drawn up a shortlist of potential new trainers but will not make a decision on where they will send the horse until the New Year.
West has been Epsom’s most successful trainer over the last few years but recently moved the bulk of his operation across the Channel to a yard on the outskirts of Paris.
He still has a stable with a handful of horses in Epsom, but he switched his attentions to France because of the financial pressures of training in the UK.
West had hoped Live In The Dream, who is currently undergoing rehab for the foot injury that kept him out for the second half of last season, would join him in France once fully fit.
But the owners were not keen on the idea and the five-year-old will remain in the UK, with the Nunthorpe likely to be his big aim again.
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Several Yorkshire-based trainers were courting the de’Lemos’ at the Gimcrack Dinner at York last week, but he is likely to be trained in the south of the country.
It means just 16 months on from the horse’s incredible win at York, when he won the Nunthorpe under Sean Kirrane at 28-1, the story has had anything but a fairytale ending.
De’Lemos said: “He is not going to France, to be honest we haven’t made any decisions where he will go next. He is still having his rehab at Mildmay Stud and he is going to be on a water treadmill for another five or six weeks.
“I don’t think he’ll stay in Epsom, we have some trainers in mind but we only spoke to Adam last week and we are just weighing up our options.
“I’m gutted he is moving from Adam. It’s not something we wanted to do. We wanted to go to Del Mar in November and have the Cinderella finish to the story, and that won’t happen with Adam now which is a real shame.
“Sean Kirrane has been in contact with us and he is very keen to ride him next year, and we don’t see why we would change the jockey situation.
“I understand the reasons why Adam decided to move to France, but we want to have the horse closer to home. It’s been an incredible journey.”
West, who will saddle his first runners in France next year and reckons he will have a string of around 20, was understandably gutted to lose the horse who gave him his greatest ever day and took him to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
He said: “I’m very sad to see him go, it’s gutting and I do believe the move over here would have benefitted the horse.
“I started out with very little and I will work my way back up and work hard to find another one like him. The horse gave us some unbelievable days.”
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