Horse Flu outbreak threatens to strangle Melbourne Cup

An article in the Herald Sun says that Japanese horses Delta Blues and Pop Rock are already out of this year’s Melbourne Cup as the horse flu outbreak threatens to strangle the Spring Carnival.

The powerhouse stayers were pulled out late yesterday because the outbreak of equine influence in their own country, Japan, which has since jumped to Australia, meaning they could not enter quarantine in time.  Delta Blues and Pop Rock, who ran one-two last year, are not suffering from the flu, but are victims of strict clamp on all horse movements in Japan and across Australia.

The outbreak, which has shut down the multi-billion dollar Australian racing industry, has spread from NSW to Queensland with 47 confirmed cases and Victorian authorities desperate to build a containment line and save the carnival.

A 72-hour ban on horse movements around the nation is due to end tomorrow at 5pm, but federal Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said he was doubtful racing would resume this week.

“If we’re racing next Saturday, then we should all breathe a sigh of relief,” he said. “If there’s any racing in Australia before then it will be a minor miracle.”

Mr McGauran said there was a chance the Melbourne Cup could be rescheduled for the first time in more than a century.  “It is better to have a deferred Melbourne Cup than to have no Melbourne Cup at all,” he said.

“It does seem increasingly likely that the start of the spring racing campaigns by our leading horses will be inevitably delayed and that may cause racing authorities to put back the feature races.”

Victorian officials are hopeful the outbreak will be contained to NSW.  “The aim is to build a containment line around Victoria,” said Racing Victoria’s CEO Stephen Allanson.

Top trainer David Hayes said the situation was getting critical.  “If the ban was extended to 30 days, I don’t see how the Spring Carnival could be run under its current format”.

Lee Freedman said the health of the horses came first. “A couple of weeks, we can probably work around.”  “Three weeks and it’s going to have a major impact.”

Leviathan owner Lloyd Williams said Melbourne Cup campaigns by several of his horses were in the balance.  “All our horses at the top stables at Flemington are totally locked out, but the issue is much bigger than us.”

Tabcorp estimated it would lose $150 million if racing did not resume until the weekend, with Victoria’s chief veterinary officer Dr Hugh Millar warning anyone who breached the ban on the movement of horses risking a $24,000 fine and two years in jail.

Crucial Olympic equestrian trials for Beijing 2008 could be cancelled, but horse drawn carriages continued to take tourists around Melbourne yesterday.

With any delay to the Spring Carnival necessitating moving the Melbourne Cup public holiday, State Government spokesman Tim Pigot said it was too early to speculate.

About 418,000 punters flocked to Flemington last year for the four days of the Melbourne Cup carnival, and milliners, caterers, fashion houses and hotels are counting on racegoers custom to keep them in the black.

Flemington racecourse caterer Peter Rowland said his company employed 5000 people on Melbourne Cup day.  “To move it back would be catastrophic.”  “It would then clash with everything else that’s happening,” he said.  “Everything’s already been ordered.”  “This is not just like going down to McDonald’s and putting together a Big Mac.”

Australian Retailers Association spokesman Richard Vines said boutique stores and milliners would be hardest hit by any change in race days and luxury hotels stand to lose millions of dollars in bookings from any Cup postponement.

Melbourne’s five-star hotels charge upwards of $500 a night during the carnival, with Langham Hotels Australia managing director Katie Benson said their Melbourne hotel was fully booked during the carnival period.

Tourism Minister Tim Holding said it was too early to speculate on the impact, adding, “It’s a very important event for our tourism operators and for the racing industry, but ultimately we will have to make a judgment based on the public health situation and we need to take appropriate precautions.”

Racing Victoria chairman Graham Duff was confident racing would resume at Moonee Valley on Wednesday.  He said there were no suspected cases of the virus in Victoria and if border controls continued, the state could be declared free of equine flu.  “We are on target to reach a point by Wednesday that we’ll be back racing,” he said.

Report by The Mole