RACING IN £150M FLU SHUTDOWN
Six-day break for equine flu with Cheltenham Festival also at risk
AN outbreak of equine flu has caused a minimum six-day shutdown of racing across the UK, costing the sport more than £150million in lost revenue.
And with the showpiece Cheltenham Festival less than five weeks away racing chiefs will be desperate to avoid a prolonged shutdown, which could prove ruinous for the sport.
All meetings were abandoned yesterday with the sport’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority, set to make a further assessment on Monday as to when racing can resume.
News broke late on Wednesday that the highly contagious virus had been detected at the yard of Donald McCain, son of Grand National legend Ginger.
McCain, left, had runners at Wolverhampton, Ayr and Ludlow this week, potentially exposing a significant number of horses to the virus. McCain reported the cases to the BHA on Wednesday evening and was keen to stress that he would never knowingly run an infected horse.
English horses have been banned from running in Ireland but scheduled race meetings there will continue, with a full card at Thurles yesterday and the all-weather meeting at Dundalk taking place this evening.
IT IS racing’s worst nightmare. The prospect of a highly contagious virus spreading like wildfire across the country, shutting down the sport for days, or even weeks, and causing the cancellation of the biggest four days on the National Hunt calendar.
So when the news broke late on Wednesday evening that equine flu had been detected at the yard of Donald McCain, who has had runners at Wolverhampton, Ayr and Ludlow this week, alarm bells began ringing very loudly.
The response from the sport’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority, was swift and effective. As soon as the Animal Health Trust confirmed the result of the tests they had made at McCain’s Bankhouse stables in Cheshire, the BHA shut racing down.
To his credit, McCain reported the cases to the BHA after his vets gave him the bad news on Wednesday evening, and the trainer, who suffered an unjust backlash on social media from some quarters, was keen to emphasise he would never knowingly run an infected horse. “Bankhouse follows all the available advice on disease control and all our horses are fully inoculated,” said McCain.
“We are scrupulous about observing the health status of horses in our care and taking the necessary steps to treat any condition that may affect them.”
The BHA agree. “He has acted professionally with the interests of the racing industry and the health of his horses as his priority,” said director of equine health and welfare
David Sykes.
While no further positive tests have been recorded, any trainer who has had runners at the three venues this week has been forced to lock down their yards, with restrictions placed on their movements.
They include the stables of champion trainer Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls. More than
1,000 horses are currently being tested. “The two horses that ran at Ludlow yesterday were taken out of the yard straight away at 7am this morning well away from Seven Barrows and are isolated on their own away from everyone else,” said Henderson.
“We’ve had to take serious measures to ensure all of our horses are healthy so I have a team of six vets coming to Seven Barrows at 6am to take nasal swabs from every single horse in the yard.
“We will transport the swabs to Newmarket ourselves, so they will be in the lab as soon as is possible, which