The champion Paul Lafferty-trained Australian-bred colt Harry’s Son was found to have heat in the knee this morning and has therefore been scratched from his first big engagement of the Champions Season, Saturday’s Gr 2 KRA Guineas.

Fortunately the problem is not serious and the yard are simply excercising caution.

Lafferty said, “The knee was also a little sensitive, so we got the vet in and X-rays showed the knee to be perfectly clean. We are not going to take a chance as he’s obviously jarred the knee.” Lafferty said that a decision would be made in a couple of weeks time about his next target.

Saturday is also the opening day of the popular Charity Turf Challenge and Harry’s Son should not now be ignored by those wishing to enter a list as he was the champion of his crop last year and is not without a chance of still proving himself the best of them over the next three months.

The good looking bay had put in some fine work on Summerveld’s top sand track yesterday morning ahead of his engagement in Saturday’s Gr 2 KRA Guineas at Greyville and this followed an outstanding gallop at Scottsville last Friday.

In the former gallop he had worked with the stable’s useful Listed Easter Handicap winner Double Clutch over 1400m, of which 1200m was run at racing pace, and after being switched out from behind his companion at the 200m mark he finished a remarkable six lengths clear, an indication of his class and just how good his turn of foot is. Another notable characteristic he has is his excellent recovery rate, which is one of the best measures of aerobic capacity. Furthermore, in his gruelling recent SA Classic race run in “very soft” going he was found to have lost a mere 1kg in weight.

Turn of foot is one of the prerequisites at Greyville and Harry’s Son has proved suited to the tight track, having won the Gr 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1600m last season, following an unlucky third at the same course over 1400m in the Gr 1 Golden Horseshoe. Therefore the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge over 1600m on June 6 at Greyville might well be on his agenda and will give the connections the opportunity to test him against the country’s best milers as well as an opportunity to exact revenge on his crop’s highest merit rated horse, Act Of War.

The three-year-old male crop has not covered itself in glory this season, but Harry’s Son could well have put up the best performance among them when winning the Gr 3 Graham Beck Stakes over 1400m at Turffontein last November by a comfortable two lengths, as he was giving lumps of weight away to some classy horses. He was also impressive in his Gr 2 Gauteng Guineas win. Furthermore he has had excuses for all three of his defeats this season.

The one chink in his armour is that he hates soft ground and that has been his likely undoing in both the Investec Dingaans and the Gr 1 SA Classic which were his only two below par runs. The laid back colt is a very good traveller but his legitimate excuse after being unusually keen in the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas at Kenilworth was that he had spent three hours on the tarmac at King Shaka airport early that morning due to a delayed flight and he then had to endure a two-legged flight via Port Elizabeth. His runner up finish was a remarkable performance considering the journey he had earlier endured.

By David Thiselton

Picture: JC Photos