No more positives, reports BHA
SYKES OPTIMISTIC RACING WILL RESUME AS SCHEDULED ON WEDNESDAY
Trainer Martin Pipe does not believe racing will start before the weekend.
There was good news for racing fans yesterday as a British Horseracing Authority (BHA) spokesman revealed no more new cases of equine flu have been discovered. Among 1,500 samples taken, not a single one has returned positive.
Speaking on Racing TV, BHA director of equine health and welfare David Sykes said: "I can happily report that we’ve not had any other positive tests except for the horses in the Donald McCain stable, so presently all tests have returned negative up until when I was in contact with the laboratory last night at 9.30pm.
"The Animal Health Trust in the last three days has done as many flu swabs as they would do in a year. They have been working from 8am to nine at night, Saturday and Sunday, to process all of these samples. "We’re looking at somewhere around 1,500 samples being all negative so far."
Despite Rebecca Menzies initially voicing fears that three of her horses in County Durham may have contracted the virus, their tests also came back negative.
The news means that the only horses currently to have picked up the strain are from Donald McCain's stable in Cheshire.
Charlie Appleby, whose Godolphin yard is one of the biggest in the country, told the Racing Post: "We tested 101 horses on Thursday, including the two that ran at Wolverhampton last Monday, and the results have come back clear.
"We are looking forward to getting back to normal tomorrow (Monday) and we are lucky at Moulton Paddocks that we have our own facilities. The two horses involved will be tested again and hopefully the results will be known later in the day."
Racing has now been cancelled for four straight days in the UK, with only Naas and Punchestown flying the flag for fans in Ireland.
But with this latest news, it now looks increasingly likely the BHA will be able to uphold their estimate that the sport can return on Wednesday.
However, former champion jumps trainer Martin Pipe feels racing is unlikely to resume on Wednesday.
Although further tests from other yards have since come back negative, more are still to be completed and the Grand Nationalwinning trainer is hopeful rather than confident of a resumption by the end of the week.
Pipe told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek: "I think it might be difficult for Wednesday, it might be doubtful, it depends how they progress on the tests. I'm hopeful it might be on by the end of the week, but that's hope more than anything.
"Of course, Cheltenham is coming up, a very important meeting. We all hope it will be contained by then of course, but there's lots of racing and planning to be done before Cheltenham. The welfare of the horses is most important, that's certainly got to come first."
While the action taken by the BHA has been criticised by some as an overreaction, Pipe is of the opinion it is better than doing nothing about the situation. "Flu can spread very quickly, something had to be done and they're certainly doing a good job testing all the horses, but how long is it going to go on for?" - Thesun. co.uk, Racingpost.com To take a bet Go to www.tabonline.co.za or www.bettingworld.co.za To take a bet Go to www.tabonline.co.za or www.bettingworld.co.za