Some months ago, Bolger had declared that New Approach (last year’s 2-year-old champion and part of [...]]]> Rick Dutrow isn’t the only trainer whose mouth gets him into trouble; across the pond, Jim Bolger is facing similar heat from the press, but for rather a different reason — his horse won. Confused? Here’s what happened:

Some months ago, Bolger had declared that New Approach (last year’s 2-year-old champion and part of the larger Darley firmament) was not under consideration for the Epsom Derby and that the fact that he was still left in as a nominee on May 23rd was an administrative oversight. Up until five days out, he continued to suggest that the race was not on New Approach’s calendar, angering many who would have liked to wager on (or against) the colt in advance of the race.

On race day itself, Bolger made no claims of invincibility for his horse; indeed, New Approach’s rank behavior on the way to the post and early in the race was not dissimilar to what we in the US would see from Big Brown some hours later — albeit with quite a different outcome:

New Approach, a racy chesnut colt who is all quality, earned his rightful place on the Derby roll of honour under a ride that will long be recalled as one of the best executed around this trickiest of tracks. Kevin Manning’s superb horsemanship was an essential part of this great triumph.

In the uphill run through the first half-mile, nobody could have envisaged New Approach taking a hand in the finish. He was fighting for his head, proving a nightmare ride for Manning.

As if that wasn’t enough, New Approach found himself at the rear of the field, buffeted between horses, giving him little chance to relax and conserve energy. Manning said it was not until reaching the seven-furlong pole that New Approach dropped the bit, but suddenly his major concern became the simple matter of not setting the colt alight down Tattenham Hill.

With Ryan Moore launching Tartan Bearer, the Dante Stakes winner, down the outside, Manning had somehow weaved through to the inside rail, carving up Rio de La Plata, the mount of Frankie Dettori, in the process. In a thrilling battle to the line, New Approach’s superior class was the telling factor as he won a shade cleverly, by half a length, with Casual Conquest, the 7-2 favourite, 4½ lengths away in third.

There is still controversy swirling as to whether the facts are as Bolger states — that he simply changed his plans — or whether the race was the target all along. In any case, despite a great performance by the horse, the British and Irish press are still very much on the side of the punters at this juncture; it will be interesting to see if they come around before New Approach’s next start in the Irish Derby on June 29th.

Among the stud farms now affected is Emirates Park (part of the Darley empire) — three yearlings, some mares as well as a teaser [...]]]> Equine influenza continues to march across New South Wales and Queensland, although Victoria still remains flu-free at this point and no horses are allowed into the state from infected areas.

Among the stud farms now affected is Emirates Park (part of the Darley empire) — three yearlings, some mares as well as a teaser and a nursemare have all tested positive.

While there are good arguments for vaccination (see below), it seems clear that not everyone is following the strict biosecurity procedures that have been put in place — some Perth trainers were fined for disobeying the lockdown rules and moving their horses to a ‘private’ training area. One imagines that there are other similar infractions that have not been noted. Given the fact that seven shuttle stallions are confirmed to have the disease, it would seem worth pursuing whether or not the rules have been applied to to everyone equally.

But back to the vaccination issue; while horses who travel often are routinely vaccinated, the local horse population in Australia has never had a need to be similarly protected, since until two weeks ago, it shared the distinction of being entirely free of the virus with only New Zealand and Iceland. Indeed, diseases such as EI are the major reason that Iceland never allows horses to return once they have left the country, nor can you import horse equipment unless it is new in its original packaging or has gone through a ‘dip’ — the last time I went to Iceland during the British Foot & Mouth outbreak, I was required to have my boots dipped into before wearing them to any horse farms, and with good reason. At work we have a well-developed set of biosecurity protocols, but if you gave an anonymous survey, everyone could point to several occasions where they have not been followed, and there are initiatives in place to ensure that the importance of adhering to those protocols is understood at every level. The arguments for and against vaccination are summed up by two opinions:

“As they [officials] procrastinate on whether to vaccinate or not … they’re risking our industry and the long-term viability of our industry,” Mr O’Shea [Randwick trainer John O'Shea] said. “The rest of the world deals with it (EI) through vaccination so why should we be any different.”

Vets disagree. “You can vaccinate to try to make sure they don’t get it but you can see at Eastern Creek they have been vaccinated and they have it,” says NSW chief veterinarian Dr Bruce Christie. “The strains change all the time.” He advocates containment, and letting it burn itself out – like a bushfire.

There are no easy answers.

In addition to the elderly horse who died last week, EI has claimed its first racehorse victim — a previously healthy horse who had just won a race in late July.

Despite somewhat [...]]]> Hard Spun and Street Sense both stepped up to the plate this weekend and proved they could win in a situation where they were truly challenged. I was also pleased that I’d picked Shakis to win the Bernard Baruch and was a little surprised to see he returned as much as he did.

Despite somewhat low expectations for Travers weekend this year, I admit that Hard Spun and Street Sense both put in great efforts that were well worth watching. My cynicism was not entirely dispelled, though as I reflected that we will likely never get to see either horse really display their full potential — I would still love to see Hard Spun race on grass or consistently in dirt miles, and of course I’d like to see Street Sense in a real rivalry with his peers, not a one-off swan song at the Breeders’ Cup.

Street Sense did run an exciting race in the Travers; he may not have looked quite as beaten as Hard Spun did a few times, but Grasshopper certainly made him work for the win. One does hope that Grasshopper’s late emergence onto the scene means that we will see a lot more of him next year, since the prospect of continuous Street Sense/Curlin/Rags to Riches/Hard Spun face-offs at four will never happen — after all, someone’s got to get to work as a stud to make up for all the money that Darley and Coolmore are currently losing in Australia with everyone (Elusive Quality, Bernardini, Holy Roman Emperor et al.) in quarantine. Of course, there’s always the possibility that The Green Monkey will blow away everyone in some allowance race at Belmont this fall that indicates he is a true champion who must be retired at once to preserve his bloodline — would that let someone else off the hook?

The spring [...]]]> Effects of the equine influenza outbreak in Australia are spreading further as more drastic measures are required to contain the disease:

The cost of the shutdown is already in the tens of millions of dollars with the cancellation of race meetings in all states, with the Northern Territory the only place to hold racing today.

The spring carnivals in Sydney and Melbourne could be in doubt if racing does not resume within a few days and next year’s foal crop will be severely diminished with some of the world’s most valuable stallions in lockdown at Sydney’s Eastern Creek quarantine station and Spotswood in Melbourne.

Additionally, New Zealand has banned the importation of Australian horses for the time being and there are suggestions that the Melbourne Cup may need to be postponed for at least a month, although a three-day racing shutdown is all that is on the table at this point.

What is encouraging, however, is that so far things are proceeding in accordance with a specifically-outlined emergency plan — one that ran a successful drill in 2005. But should things get worse despite those measures, a theoretical financial breakdown is available here.