RACING REVIEW
THE big issue in racing circles this week was the outbreak of the highly contagious equine flu’ virus in Britain, and the differing reactions on both sides of the Irish sea.
All racing was brought to a complete halt for at least a week in Britain up to Wednesday 13th while the action continued without interruption over here.
Many of the top stables were totally locked down and travel restrictions imposed in Britain.
While the emergency measure were approved by most, there were some dissenting voices who felt it was a serious over-reaction, including top trainer Nigel Twiston Davies.
In contrast, the vast bulk of racing connections in Ireland seemed happy to continue business as usual though a few expressed concern that the matter was not being taken seriously enough here. I suppose only time will tell who was right in both jurisdictions.
The good news up to Sunday was that the outbreak appeared to be confined to the Donald McCain yard where six horses went down, with many hundreds of tests carried out across Britain coming out clean, and there were no reports of any cases in Ireland.
The main cause of concern here was that there were quite a few Irish trained runners in action in Britain last Wednesday, with Gordon Elliott having a treble at Ayr where they were competing with horses from the McCain yard.
The Irish trainers were alerted while on the way back on the ferry and the horses were not allowed to return to their home yards, but were diverted elsewhere and placed in quarantined isolation. Most people in the business here appeared to be happy that this was enough and track and point-to-point racing went ahead without a break.
I felt the absence of any free-to-air coverage of Irish racing was brought sharply into focus this week when it was the only action available.
Racing TV had offered some free coverage during January when introducing their service,