DNA test for All Aboard

THE Kenilworth stipes will tomorrow carry out a DNA test on All Aboard as part of their investigations into why the unraced two-year-old’s markings failed to match those in his passport when he was compulsorily scratched at Kenilworth last Tuesday.

Senior stipe Ernie Rodrigues on Saturday reiterated that it was the correct horse who appeared last week – the scanned chip matched the number in both the passport and the NHA records – and he explained: “We are doing the DNA test so that we can clear the horse to race as soon as possible.”

Rodrigues

Rodrigues explained that the NHA receives photographs of foals and yearlings from the studs – All Aboard was sold by Klipdrif as agent for R300 000 at last year’s CTS Premier – and the one in its records shows markings that match the original passport.

However equine passports can be reissued and that of All Aboard has been issued three times. It is the centre page of the third passport that shows markings completely different from the two previous ones.

Rodrigues said: “We still have to ascertain how this latest centre page got into the passport.”

He and his colleagues also have to ascertain which passport was presented when the Mambo In Seattle colt was granted his stalls certificate and, if it was the third one, why the discrepancy was not spotted by officials at the time.

Hashtagyolo

All Aboard is trained by Dean Kannemeyer who reported that the unbeaten Hashtagyolo, favourite for the Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas before being scratched, has been back in the equine hospital in Johannesburg a second time.

She was originally sent there after suffering what Kannemeyer describes as “a wobbly” and he said: “She had recovered and was doing well when her temperature went back up again.

“She was obviously incubating a virus so I put her back into hospital for a couple of days. She is OK again now and I will probably send her down to Durban shortly.”

Kannemeyer believes it was a blessing in disguise that the wobbly happened when it did rather than at the time of the race, saying: “If you run them when they are incubating a virus it can set them back three or four months.”