Private Harry is set for a new jockey.

News broke earlier on Monday that Private Harry’s regular rider Ash Morgan had been dumped from the previously unbeaten galloper.

Kurrinda Bloodstock’s Sean Driver confirmed to Gareth Hall on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up that Yulong Investments, who own a controlling interest in Private Harry, will look elsewhere for a new rider after his career-first failure in The Shorts at Randwick on Saturday.

Many feel that Morgan has been harshly treated given the horse knuckled at the start of the race, then copped a bump from Briasa and endured a torrid trip.

However, Nathan Doyle's fellow trainer Wayne Hawkes says these sorts of decisions, and vice versa when a jockey opts against a ride, are made almost daily in the racing game.

“From your (the media) point of view this is a big, breaking story,” Hawkes said on Giddy Up’s Monday Means Test.

“From my point of view I don’t give a stuff.

“And this is nothing against Ash Morgan. For the record, Ash has done everything right, he’s done nothing wrong. But he’s a B-grade jockey compared to J-Mac (James McDonald), and no one will say it.

“I’m not saying he hasn’t (come a long way), I’m not bagging him at all. He’s won a few premierships in New South Wales and he’s a hell of a good jockey. But if you’re comparing J-Mac as the A-grader, lots of them are B-graders.

“You know why I don’t give a stuff? Jockeys do this to trainers every single day of the week. Let’s be honest.

“They jump on and jump off horses all the time. But as soon as connections do it to a jockey it’s lead story news.

“It’s easy to sit back and ra-ra but you’re always going to be a sitting shot when you’re Ash Morgan because you’re not J-Mac or you’re not one of the leading jockeys.

“Ash Morgan didn’t do anything wrong.”

Why Morgan was dumped

Prior to Saturday’s race meet at Randwick, the Doyle-trained 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.

Driver revealed that the son of Harry Angel had plenty of excuses in the run though

“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.