Contrasting reactions to threat
THE big issue in racing circles this week was the outbreak of the highly contagious equine flu’ virus in Britain, and the differing reactions on both sides of the Irish sea.
All racing was brought to a complete halt for at least a week in Britain up to Wednesday 13th while the action continued without interruption over here.
Many of the top stables were totally locked down and travel restrictions imposed in Britain.
While the emergency measure were approved by most, there were some dissenting voices who felt it was a serious over-reaction, including top trainer Nigel Twiston Davies.
In contrast, the vast bulk of racing connections in Ireland seemed happy to continue business as usual though a few expressed concern that the matter was not being taken seriously enough here. I suppose only time will tell who was right in both jurisdictions.
The good news up to Sunday was that the outbreak appeared to be confined to the Donald McCain yard where six horses went down, with many hundreds of tests carried out across Britain coming out clean, and there were no reports of any cases in Ireland.
The main cause of concern here was that there were quite a few Irish trained runners in action in Britain last Wednesday, with Gordon Elliott having a treble at Ayr where they were competing with horses from the McCain yard.
The Irish trainers were alerted while on the way back on the ferry and the horses were not allowed to return to their home yards, but were diverted elsewhere and placed in quarantined isolation. Most people in the business here appeared to be happy that this was enough and track and point-to-point racing went ahead without a break.
I felt the absence of any free-to-air coverage of Irish racing was brought sharply into focus this week when it was the only action available.
Racing TV had offered some free coverage during January when introducing their service, but there is nothing available now without extra payment on top of your usual fees for Sky Sport etc. which used to include good coverage of Irish action on ATR.
On a quiet week on the track there were some good Wexford performances, with a double at Naas on Saturday. JJ Slevin kept up his fruitful partnership with first cousin, Joseph O’Brien, who seems to have a great crop of young horses. They combined to win a rated novice hurdle comfortably with Band of Brothers (5/2) from a Mullins and Elliott pair.
He was third in a handicap chase on Ask Nile (6/1) for Seamus Neville from Bridgetown, well behind clear winner Roaring Bull (7/1) for Kennedy and Elliott.
Liz Doyle introduced a very nice four year year old son of Full of Gold to impressively win the bumper, Finny Maguire taking over at the furlong mark on Barnes Des Mottes (4/1) and scoring by a cosy four lengths.
They managed to avoid the chaos three furlongs from home which saw three horses come down on the flat. The Champion bumper at Cheltenham may be an option.
It was a blank day at Punchestown on Sunday, with the best result being third in the cross country over the famous banks course for Benny Walsh (Murrintown) on the Peter Maher trained Mtada Surpreme, behind banks specialist Josies Orders (5/4f).
At Thurles on Thursday, Slevin had a pair of seconds, on John Nicholson’s outsider, Benrubin (20/1) and he was a neck second on Joseph O’Brien’s Petit Tartare (6/4), a renewed effort on the run-in just failing.
It will be the sincere wish of all racing people that the flu’ threat will end this week.