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Joe Pace has confirmed that Harry Stamper will not feature in next month’s Yabby Dam Farms Great Southern Star due to injury.
The two-time Group 1-winning squaregaiter remains off the scene due to a skin puncture after being kicked in the float.
“He’s had 6-8 weeks off when he got kicked by another horse traveling in the float from Yarra Valley,” Pace said. “The other horse had pacing shoes on, he got kicked in the shin and it punctured the skin and went through to the bone.”
The 52-year-old trainer had the Great Southern Star in his sights before the mishap.
“That was his aim, but he needed time to get over his injuries and infections and stuff like that,” he said.
“Time had to heal it and it took this long.”
Harry Stamper’s last run was in the Yarra Valley Trotters Cup on November 9 last year when he finished fourth with James Herbertson in the sulky.
The Harkness horseman has long-term goals of reaching the Inter Dominion carnival in Sydney later in the year.
“He’s just been a week in work,” he said. “That’s our main aim, for the Inter Dominion. We are looking to target him for the little country cups.
“We need to sit down with the owner and even my head office, but we might even head off to Queensland with him. That’s not off the cards.”
Harry Stamper, who was purchased out of New Zealand and sent to Pace’s stable in early 2022, has a career record of 10 wins from 23 starts for prizemoney earnings of just over $150,000.
