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“Disaster”: Ash Morgan booted from Private Harry
Connor Scanlon • September 22nd, 2025 3:51 pm
Prior to Saturday’s race meet at Randwick Private Harry was an undefeated four-year-old with five consecutive wins.
The Group 1 winner was the favourite coming into the Group 2 Shorts (1100m), however the Kurrinda Bloodstock and Yulong Investments owned sprinter lost for the first time, finishing outside the placings in fifth.
Kurrinda Bloodstock’s Director and Bloodstock Manager Sean Driver revealed that the son of Harry Angel had plenty of excuses in the run though.
In fact, the four-year-old who was ridden by Ash Morgan knuckled and nearly fell over at the start of the race.
“It was just a disaster as the gates opened, he nearly came down out of the gates,” Driver told SENTrack and RSN's Giddy Up.
“If you watched the steward’s vision, he knuckled that bad, we don’t even know how he stayed on his feet.
“Then we copped a little bump from Briasa, post him knuckling.
“A lot of people watching will think we copped a bump from Briasa, but that was after the worst happened.
“He was laying on the gates quite badly in there and just wasn’t corrected well enough – he’s come out sideways, he’s knuckled down and his nose hit the turf.
“That’s pretty much game over from there.
“You just can’t do that at this level! He’s never missed a kick before, he always pings out of the lids.
“He’s come down on his knees and his nose has touched the grass.”
On top of the nightmare barrier jump, Private Harry was also ridden at an extremely fast pace in the first 600m which astounded Driver.
“He was driven forward, and we ran 32 seconds in the first 600m,” revealed Driver.
“You can’t finish races off when you’re running 32 seconds in your first 600m!
“You can’t expect a horse to finish off, it’s just not gonna happen.”
Despite the disappointing run, the Kurrinda Bloodstock Director reaffirmed that the four-year-old is still an elite Group 1 level horse.
“I’ve got no doubt the horse is in terrific order, we’ve still got full confidence in the horse,” Driver said.
“We just got to put a pen through the run as nothing worked out. I don’t care about that race, I’m just happy that the horse is safe.
“I’m not making excuses here, but things do go wrong. People forget, he’s still a Group 1 winner and he won his first five starts straight.
“He has come back better, I can assure you. We just need to regroup and act as if Saturday didn’t happen.”
Regular jockey Morgan had ridden Private Harry to each of his five victories, impressing for the owners each ride.
However, Driver revealed that Yulong Investments has made the decision to part ways with Morgan, following his out-of-character ride.
“He won’t (be riding Private Harry),” Driver revealed.
“Yulong will let us know today (who will ride Private Harry next).
“At the end of the day we’re on a big stage and it’s a business. We need the job to get done and the job wasn’t done.
“That might seem ruthless, but they’ve paid a lot of money for this horse.
“I haven’t spoken to Ash yet. He is a really good mate of mine and I will continue to support Ash with our other horses.
“It’s unfortunate, but you’ve just got to push your emotions aside.”
Private Harry's next race will be the Group 2 Premiere Stakes (1200m) on October 4 at Randwick.
