Developing a knee injury two days before a group one race may not be ideal but for the connections of Alta Orlando it could have been worse.
The exciting 2-year-old is out of tomorrow night's Sires' Stakes Final at Addington and the Jewels at Cambridge on May 31 after his knee problem surfaced yesterday.
It will require clean-up surgery before Alta Orlando heads to the recovery paddock.
While that is hardly ideal, it would have been far more costly had it been just a few days earlier as Alta Orlando won our richest juvenile pace, the $200,000 Sales Series Pace, at Addington just last Saturday.
In hindsight, his knee issue may have been behind his sometimes erratic manners, which meant he had to go via the inquiry room to confirm last Saturday's win.
