Cox upbeat despite Kodi Bear setback Clive Cox reports Kodi Bear to be making steady improvement after the three-year-old suffered a slight setback that looks likely to rule him out of the Qipco 2000 Guineas. The Lambourn trainer is "pretty certain" his star colt will miss the Classic at Newmarket on May 2 after the horse was cast in his box on Thursday. The French and Irish 2000 Guineas on May 10 and 23 respectively remain feasible options for the Dewhurst Stakes runner-up, but Cox is understandably making no firm plans as yet. "It's disappointing and bad timing. He's looking a bit better this morning, but we are still going to be a few days on the easy list," said Cox. "It's just going to hinder our progress in the short term. Hopefully, day by day we can see an improvement. "I'm pretty sure he's going to miss Newmarket. We're going to struggle to be there for that. "We'll take it day by day. I'm very much hopeful as up to this point we'd had a good preparation. "It will be a day by day thing, but I'm pretty certain Newmarket is out of the question. Hopefully we've got other possibilities and a long summer ahead. "He was pleasing me very much and last year confirmed his promise. He'd done exceptionally well over the winter and I'm still excited about what lies ahead."
