Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘WORRYING BUT WE’LL WORK ON’
A TEAM of six vets will visit Nicky Henderson’s stable early today to take nasal swabs from the near-150 horses in his care.
But despite acknowledging the “extremely worrying times” caused by the equine flu crisis, the champion trainer is adamant “normal service will continue” at his locked down Lambourn yard.
“Once completed, we will transport the swabs to Newmarket ourselves so they will be in the lab as soon as is humanly possible which means we should get the results extremely promptly,” said Henderson (above, left). “All my horses seem absolutely fine.”
Paul Nicholls (above, right), trainer of Gold Cup hope Clan
Des Obeaux, added: “It’s so frustrating. Everyone works hard to get these races on and then this happens. We haven’t seen any signs of anything untoward at all. I’ve 128 in training and I’d be confident to say all are well.” DONALD DO MCCAIN has spent his life ac accustomed to the spotlight.
His H late father, Ginger, was famous around aro the world as the man who trained the great Red Rum to a record three Grand National N triumphs in the 1970s.
And Mccain Jnr continued the family b business by claiming victory in the same r race when he saddled Ballabriggs to g glory in 2011.
But the attention that came his way y yesterday when he was revealed as the m man in the eye of the equine flu storm w was something new and unwelcome. He immediately mounted a sterling d defence of his reputation after it emerged three horses at his Bankhouse stables in Cheshire were carr ying the highly contagious virus.
News of the positive tests sent racing into meltdown as it was feared Mccain’s Raise A Spark and Dry Lightening, who contested races at Ayr and Ludlow on Wednesday, could also be infected.
On social media, where the crisis drew comparisons with the foot-and-mouth epidemic that claimed th e 2001 Cheltenham Festival, Mccain was accused of a cavalier attitude to equine health.
But the 48-year-old, who took over from his l egendary father in 2006, insisted: “We are scrupulous about observing the health status of horses in