Injury Rules Lord Of The Sky Out Of Spring

Lord Of The Sky has emerged from the Bletchingly Stakes with a leg injury that will keep out of the spring.

Trainer Robbie Laing said he feared the sprinter had bowed a tendon after he raced on Saturday but subsequent scans showed the injury was not as severe as first thought.

"Overnight (on Saturday night) his off-front leg from his knee down to his fetlock joint blew up like a football and it looked like a bowed tendon to me," Laing told radio station RSN on Monday.

"It was about three inches thick and full of jelly and fluid."

The sprinter's leg was scanned by Laing's vet on Sunday morning.

"There's a very slight tear up under his knee, which must have let go a lot of fluid after injuring it, but it doesn't look like it's the end of the road," Laing said.

"There's no black hole. When you've been looking at scans long enough, you're hoping not to see a black hole or a big tear in the body of the tendon, and that was the case yesterday."

Laing said the dual Group One-placed sprinter would be restricted to walking for at least a couple of months.

"I can envisage him doing beach work in January/February and we'll have a good gauge on him then whether to continue on or whether he will need longer," he said.

Lord Of The Sky finished runner-up in two Group One races during the autumn, The TJ Smith in Sydney and The Goodwood in Adelaide.

He started favourite in Saturday's Bletchingly Stakes but was eased out of the race in the straight.