Australian ban on Cup raiders misguided

The use of debatable scan evidence should cause serious concern around the racing world

Last week’s decision to expel two European challengers from tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup after CT scans of their fetlocks was nothing more than a crass PR stunt by Racing Victoria, the body which runs the meeting at Flemington.

Marmelo and Ispolini were thrown out of the race after the scans identified tiny fissures in their bones, not visible on X-rays, which Racing Victoria’s experts chose to allege were likely to leave them more predisposed to fracturing should they have raced in the Cup.

The stewards stated that they had “made their decision to ensure the safety and well-being of Marmelo, along with his potential competitors and riders”. This was even though neither the experienced Australian jockey Hugh Bowman nor the trainer Hughie Morrison and the vet responsible for the horse in Australia were at all concerned about Marmelo. They are all very familiar with the horse and his usual gait.

One might think the ban is a sensible precaution until one scrutinises the procedures and science behind this decision.

To start with, if CT scanning is suddenly the absolute arbiter on whether a horse should compete safely, why did Racing Victoria pick out two European-trained horses, neither of which were showing any problems in training? Why not scan every runner in the race?

But more worrying is the apparent arrogance of the Racing Victoria officials. At no point in his report did Chris Whitton, the vet at the University of Melbourne who carried out the scans, say that Marmelo was unfit to race or make any comment on the risk if he were to.

And yet the Racing Victoria officials chose to attribute risk that is far from proven, despite a glaring lack of concrete evidence in the literature to support their assumptions.

Ian Wright, a world-renowned specialist in this area at the Newmarket Equine Hospital, despite minor differences of opinion, broadly agreed with Whitton’s comments on the physical findings of the scan, but categorically stated that in his opinion there was no reason why Marmelo should not race.

It is actually well established that these fissures are seen commonly on CT scans and on post-mortem examinations of racehorses in training, but the significance of them is not clear at all and the veterinary profession simply does not understand enough yet to be making accurate predictions about progression to catastrophic injury.

There is, in fact, a general agreement amongst veterinary specialists that there seems to be insufficient data currently available to be confidently using CT as a screening tool for the risk of catastrophic injury.

The reality here is that Racing Victoria are knee jerk reacting to the incredibly bad press racing recently got in Australia, as a result of a documentary showing ex-racehorses being abused in an abattoir.

But throwing a hand grenade into the horse welfare debate around the world with overlycautious interpretations of scans is nothing short of irresponsible.

Make no mistake Racing Victoria has put a gun to the head of every other racing jurisdiction in the world; but do not expect any of them to follow the foolhardy Australians any time soon.

Trainer Richard Phillips has come up with the genius concept of staging a National Racehorse Day. It is based around the realisation that racing needs to show the wider world how loved and nurtured these animals are.

Coordinating every licensed premises, be they racecourses, training yards, studs or equine hospitals to open their doors to punters, unengaged members of the public and Members of Parliament would at least be getting the sport onto the front foot.

Those ambivalent to such a project point out that such a day might only engage ‘the initiated’. But even if that is the case, they are the folk who racing needs onside to counter the anti-racing social media minority.