Clock ticking for Don't Stop Dreaming

Star four-year-old Don't Stop Dreaming has suffered a minor setback ahead of his IRT New Zealand Cup bid at Addington on Tuesday, November 12.

"Darcy", as he's known, is the $5 second favourite in the markets for the country's biggest race but his preparation is being hampered by on-going foot problems."

“It’s complicated ,” co-trainer Nathan Purdon said on the Purdon Racing website, “but basically he needs to be raised quite high behind for best balance and we can’t shoe him like we’d like to just at the moment. So we have backed off him again for a short time and let it come right. Hopefully that will be in time for the Cup.”

While hopeful he is mindful they are racing against time.

“”It is still on but it has got to the stage where you wouldn’t want anything else to go wrong. We are hoping for October in a race maybe like the Methven Cup maybe and if we get there we should be ok. But another setback would be a threat to starting in the Cup,” he said.

"Hopefully a short rest will fix the problem but if not he is going to need more time and we are running out of it.”

The winner of 15 of 28 starts, including two Sires Stakes Finals, Don’t Stop Dreaming is one of the leading Kiwi chances in the race along with the likes of arch rival Merlin ($7) as they take on an Aussie invasion expected to be spearheaded by the champion Leap To fame ($1.60), Major Moth ($6), and defending champion Swayzee ($10).