The 47-year-old former champion has only had six rides this season and but he has ridden two winners, both on Miss Saigon. He has been similarly carded up since only to have to cry off because he couldn’t get light enough to take the ride. His mount has 60kg here and Fortune has told Ramsden that he will get close enough to ride.

The money has already poured on and, after opening 12-10 favourite with Betting World on Monday, the three-year-old was down to 1-2 by yesterday afternoon. He has not been seen since September when he started hot favourite at Durbanville only to over-race.

“He had two twisted testicles so he was gelded and he then had a nasty foot abscess,” says the trainer. “But we have got him fairly right.”

The obvious danger is 7-2 chance Seattle Kat who went close over this course and distance last month and, like Fortune’s mount, is having his third start.

Nordic Wind, scratched from the Listed race on Met day because she had been coughing, should be hard to beat in the opening Maiden Juvenile Plate. She ran on strongly after starting slowly on debut and went into the notebooks of many punters, including James Goodman on Winning Ways.

But don’t overlook Just Felicity who also ran well on debut and is fancied by Greg Ennion. “She is a smart little filly. Her first run was the first time she had seen grass and she would have run the winner close had she not raced green,” says Ennion. “She shows a huge amount of ability at home.”

Mohammed Allie and Hilaria are overdue a win and, with Sean Cormack riding out of his skin, the 16-10 favourite should be able to beat Provenance (5-1) in the Legislate Maiden.

Yalla Habibti has a big chance at 7-1 in race four if you are prepared to forgive her last run when her rider reported that she was not striding out freely and when the racecourse vet said she was blowing hard.

“I couldn’t find anything but she is a small filly with a choppy action,” says Eric Sands.” She needs to be covered up and I think she just saw too much daylight.”

That said, Captain’s Dove has more obvious credentials, particularly as she again drops in trip, although you won’t get rich backing her at 8-10.

Svala (already backed from 9-2 to 3-1) is the only newcomer in this race and Yogas Govender says: “The trip will be a bit short for her but she has ability.”

Finally Good Grace stands out in race eight after running so well on debut. Unfortunately the value has already gone and you can’t now get much more than 9-10 (she opened at 14-10). Her first run was packed with promise.

The yard will have small beginnings, but Lafferty is partly inspired by the example set by Herman Brown, whose highly successful Dubai operation that ran for a number of years this century never had more than 15 or so horses.

Lafferty’s Gr 1-winning Equus champion Harry’s Son will be one of the founding members of the international stable. He and his team are also looking out for a quality international horse in training to accompany the Australian-bred colt. His Summerveld assistant trainer Roy Waugh has also been talking to a few international owners in the meantime in order to bolster the numbers.

Lafferty is gregarious by nature and has always been a team player. This distinguishing trait was honed during his years as a professional footballer with Durban City. He now aspires to be like the peerless Mike de Kock, who has become internationally famous and has been able to run yards in all of Dubai, Newmarket in the UK, Randjesfontein and Summerveld due to the fantastic team he has built around him. Current champion trainer Justin Snaith provides another example. Snaith’s main role is to train and take care of horses as all other duties required to run a successful yard are divided between the other expert members of his highly professional operation.

Lafferty already has an excellent team in place and for a small yard it is noticeable how often they send out feature race runners. He has had Gr 1 winners through Harry’s Son and Love Struck in both of the last two season’s as well as a Gr 1 third place through Admiral’s Eye. Other horses to have flown the yard’s flag high in recent times have been the Gr 2 Gold Circle Oaks winner Goat, the Gr 3 Peninsula Handicap winner Pinero and the Gr 3 Southern Cross Stakes winner Oracle News.

Besides Harry’s Son the yard currently have some useful types that include the Gr 3 Flamboyant Stakes runner up Goldie Coast, the five-time winner Garibondy, the up and coming three-year-old fillies Flying Loot and Pearl Emblem and consistent older horses like Auction King and Double Clutch.

Lafferty has loyal and dedicated staff. Head grooms Vusi Ndlovu and Paulos Ntali are two of the most important members as they have both been with the yard since it started out in 1987 and have become experts in horse care and nutrition. Assistant trainer Waugh is a trainer in his own right having had a lot of success in the USA. Dereck Ramsay is the efficient behind-the-scenes member of the team and takes care of the yard’s financial, accounting and administrative  duties and he has also developed the yard’s communication and social media outlets into polished processes. Ramsay is one of Lafferty’s many staunch friends from his schooldays and runs a successful IT business. He did not get there without determination and is laying out the plans for the yard’s ambitious future with equal zest.

Lafferty would not have done as well as he has done in recent times without this skilled and dedicated team behind him as he has built up Gary Playeresque air miles in staying close to his wife and daughters, Jan, Amy and Holly, who all live in the UK. Behind Lafferty’s happy-go-lucky exterior is a highly committed father and the many hats he has worn in racing from training at Summerveld, to TV presenting, to directorship of Gold Circle, Chairmanship of the Trainer’s Association and at one stage having a successful satellite yard in Port Elizabeth have all been aimed at raising his profile and stakes in order to secure the future for his daughters.

His high profile helped him recently land the position of South African Ambassador to the Magic Millions Sales company in Australia, a role which has seen the many global friends and connections he has made over the years increase tenfold. Being well known on the international scene means he will have already accomplished the first step towards his overseas ambitions.

His daughters have reaped the benefits of his and his wife’s dedication and Amy recently qualified Cum Laude at Oxford University, while Holly is currently headgirl at one of the top private school’s in England, St. John’s in Leatherhead.

Lafferty’s travels have sometimes been negatively perceived, but teamwork is what training is all about these days and the current team have all embraced his ambitious plans with keen anticipation.

Waugh helped Herman Brown set up a yard in Chantilly at the outset of his Dubai sojourn and spent time with him in Dubai for many seasons. This coupled with his experience of dirt tracks in the USA will see him taking to the current Dubai racing climate like a duck to water and he will be a natural as one of the new yard’s chief components. Therefore Lafferty will soon be looking for a Summerveld assistant trainer to replace Waugh.

Lafferty has never been short of energy and has a renowned sense of humour so it is a certainty that he will add a lot of colour to the Dubai racing scene.

Bloodstock agent John Freeman not only owns a share of the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and J&B Met winner Futura, but is in the rare positon of managing both the first and second placed stallions on the current national sires log, Dynasty and Trippi respectively.

Freeman also manages Captain Al, who is right up there in fifth place on the log.

He purchased Dynasty as a yearling and was later responsible for syndicating both him and Captain Al.

He has shares in all three of the above-mentioned sires.

Freeman recalled, “Dynasty has extremely well balanced proportions and superb looks and temperament. If you had to make a mould of how a stallion ought to look, he would be it. He also has incredible movement.”

Freeman said about the now four-year-old colt Futura, “He is very much his father’s son. The most valuable asset Dynasty passes on to his progeny are his elastic stride and his heart.”

Dynasty, a 1999-born colt by the late great Fort Wood, was trained by Dean Kannemeyer and won nine of his twelve starts. He won four Gr 1s in successive races in 2003, the Cape Derby, the South African Guineas, the Daily News 2000 and the Vodacom Durban July.

Freeman, in recalling the purchase of Dynasty, began, “I was a great admirer of Fort Wood, his progeny were so outstanding you couldn’t miss them.”

However, Dynasty’s grandsire Commodore Blake was considered an off putting point for all except Freeman.

He said, “People didn’t understand Commodore Blake, so Dynasty was hard to assess. Nobody knew that Commodore Blake was trained by Sir

Michael Stoute, who told me the horse could run very well. He had a timeform rating of 123. He was imported by the Bloemfontein-based Jane Wessels so I knew the horse well as I am a third generation racing man and the racing community used to be small. Commodore Blake only averaged 15 foals per crop in a short stud career in South Africa. But the key to Dynasty is that Commodore Blake was by the English Derby winner Blakeney out of Ribamba, who was a half-sister to the classic winner Bruni (who won the St. Leger by ten lengths). Commodore Blake’s grandam is a close genetic relative of Horse Chestnut. I liked the pedigree and it has proven to be good.”

Freeman recalled that even prominent owner Jack Mitchell, who is today one of Dynasty’s biggest supporters at the sales, had decided to “pass” when offered a share in Dynasty after the yearling sales, because although he loved the horse he was not sure about the Commodore Blake angle. Today Mitchell has a share in both Futura and another top Dynasty colt, the Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate.

Dynasty was owned during his racing career by John Newsome’s Fieldspring Racing, who also owned the champions Free My Heart and Rabiya.

Freeman was Fieldspring’s trusted bloodstock agent in South Africa and he recalled that there was once an offer for Dynasty after his July win of an incredible US$5 million. The prospective purchaser could not believe that this amount could be turned down for a South African-bred and Freeman had replied, “It’s simple, he’s not for sale because we want to breed with him.”

This turned out to be a wise decision, because his stud value would far surpass that figure today.

The Highlands Stud-based Dynasty recently broke the record for the highest priced horse sold at a South African sale when a Maine Chance Farms-bred yearling colt, out of a full-sister to the champion sire Silvano, was knocked down for R5,2 million.

The top former trainer Herman Brown Senior, respected for his vast knowledge of thoroughbreds, commented that in 63 years of attending sales he had never seen a better yearling. He said that this Dynasty colt had resembled a three-year-old and also spoke of his excellent legs.

The Drakenstein Stud-based Trippi remains the most expensive thoroughbred ever imported to South Africa and Freeman is adamant that a stallion of such quality would never have been landed had it not been for the financial crisis in the USA.

Trippi’s numbers are now the equal of Dynasty and his success this year lies in his amazing three-year-olds, the best of whom is the Maine Chance Paddock Stakes and Klawervlei Majorca Stakes winning-filly Inara. Trippi is leading the three-year-old national log.

Freeman said that initially Trippi’s progeny had been viewed as “forward” types and he consequently broke the South African record for having the highest number of two-year-old stakes winners with his first crop.

Freeman said, “That was initially his undoing, but trainers now understand not to rush them and give them the time they deserve and the rewards are coming.”

Lafferty said: “He is going to go for the Betting World Gauteng Guineas at the end of the month and then the SA Classic four weeks later.

“I am also going to run him internationally – he is top class and I want to test him. That may mean going via Mauritius but there are things going on (regarding quarantine) that may come to something.”

Harry’s Son, winner of last season’s Premiers Champion Stakes, was beaten less than two lengths by Act Of War when flown down for the Grand Parade Cape Guineas. But that was an experience Lafferty is not keen to repeat.

He said: “There is too much schlep involved in getting a horse down to Cape Town. He had to stand on the tarmac for three hours and he didn’t get to the course until 10.00am.”

He said, “All seven of my rides will be competitive and five of them have a good chance of making the first four.”

He emphasised, “I really like the ride for Mr Tarry in race 2, Aleut.” This three-year-old colt by Sail From Seattle out of an Al Mufti mare made his debut in a weak maiden over 1200m on the Vaal sand and, although finishing 5,5 lengths back in second to the progressive sand type Forest View, he was 5,25 lengths clear of the rest of the field and should have benefitted from the outing.

He faces another weak field and comes out well on formlines. The only danger of those to have run appears to be Mississippi Rising, who made a fair debut over today’s course and distance in a weak race.

All six of his other rides are for Mike Azzie.

Hewitson began, “Love Without End in race three is a big runner.” This Dynasty filly is a half-sister to the useful five-time winner Himilayan Hill. She found consistent betting support in four outings on the sand and might appreciate the switch to turf in this weak field over1400m, although the Johan Janse Van Vuuren-trained C’Est Chique looks the one to beat.

Hewitson rates Apple Crumble in race four, a maiden over 1400m, another big runner, “provided he brings his work to the course.” This four-year-old gelding is bred in the purple, being by Trippi out of the Azzie-trained Gr 1 Empress Club Stakes-winning Jet Master mare Stratos.

Hewitson said, “I was supposed to have ridden him earlier, but there was a change of ownership, and we think the 1400m will be the best introduction for him. I have already worked him three times on the grass and he gives a good feel. He is a straight forward horse and won’t be green.”

Next up in race five, a maiden over 1700m, he rides the favourite Netherby Hall and said, “After his pleasing debut he will be a big runner.” This three-year-old Judpot gelding showed pace throughout on debut over 1600m and finished a close up third. He looks to be a resolute galloper and will not only appreciate the step up in trip, but will likely strip fitter.

In race eight, a maiden over 2000m, he rides the three-year-old Awesome Adam. This Australian-bred colt returns to the turf after a way below par outing on sand and is the 18/10 favourite. Hewitson said, “He is crying out for this trip and is also a big runner.”

Hewitson is the son of former jockey Carl, who is these days the assistant trainer in the top Port Elizabeth yard of Yvette Bremner. Lyle has always regarded his father as his biggest mentor and is thrilled that he will be at the meeting today. He said, “My Dad has watched me ride one winner before but it will be great to have him at the meeting to provide extra advice. I just hope it works out well and that I can make him proud.”

He said about his plans to become a professional jockey, “As soon I have completed my matric I will consider my best options but I definitely want to make it my career path.”

The South African Jockeys Academy know about his ambitions and, due to his obvious skill in the saddle and fantastic attitude, they are unlikely to turn him down if that would indeed be his best option. Hewitson revealed, “I barely get to ride work during the school term, which is quite hard and is a limitation, but in the holidays I pretty much ride 24/7. I am grateful to Kearsney for allowing me the time off to ride in races.”

He has a following among his fellow pupils as well his school teachers. His biggest fan is the Engineering and Graphic Design teacher Dean Moodley, who is also a prominent sports coach. He said, “I think he knows about the noms before I do!”

He feels he has a good relationship with the likes of Azzie and Tarry and said, “I wish I could pay them back by riding work more often, but I am grateful for the support and hope it will pay off tomorrow.”

Hewitson rode his first winner on 19 November 2013 aboard the Yogas Govender-trained Argo’s Jet in just his second career race ride. To date he has had 40 rides for 8 winners at a superb strike rate of 20% and is very much a rider to follow.