BHA END THE LOCKDOWN BUT DISRUPTION REIGNS

THE British Horseracing Authority last night ended the lockdown of stables that had runners at Ayr last week, where Donald McCaintrained Raise A Spark ran before testing positive for equine flu.

While racing resumed yesterday with four meetings under strict bio-security controls, 22 trainers, many of them north of the border, remained unable to have runners. But with frustration turning to anger among those trainers, the BHA now feel sufficiently reassured to act.

It avoids a potentially unfortunate situation at Kelso today.

Only two runners have been declared for the £25,000 Malcolm Jefferson Memorial Chase but one of them, Captain Redbeard, could have been forced out of the race as his trainer Stuart Coltherd was among those barred because he had runners at Ayr. That would have reduced the feature race to a walkover for Cheltenham Gold Cup outsider Definitly Red.

Coltherd-trained Leonasisland was one of five late withdrawals from Musselburgh yesterday, where The Tartan Spartan was also barred from running after being transported from County Kilkenny.

The sport remains disrupted, with only 28 runners at Leicester and 41 at Kelso, but the situation should ease over the coming days. Nine of those at Kelso would have been non-runners had the BHA not acted last night.

David Sykes, director of equine health and welfare for the BHA, said: ‘The teams at the BHA and Animal Health Trust are working round the clock to analyse tests and clear horses to run.’

The case of Field Exhibition, trained by Grace Harris, highlights the problems faced. He won at Musselburgh, but cannot race at Market Rasen on Sunday because, by then, he falls foul of the BHA restriction that runners must have had an equine flu vaccination within the last six months.