Fears that the year’s biggest races could be called off are receding, but the next batch of test results will make the extent of the problem clearer
It felt like one minute to midnight when racing awoke on Thursday morning to the news that all four of the day’s meetings had been cancelled due to an outbreak of equine influenza (EI) at Donald McCain’s stable in Cheshire.
Most racing fans still remember 2001, when the Cheltenham Festival was lost amid the foot-and-mouth epidemic on Britain’s farms, and Google did little to ease the nerves, offering up the precedent of Australia’s EI outbreak in 2007, which closed Sydney’s tracks for nearly five months.
Written by Greg Wood
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/feb/08/equine-flu-outbreak-commentary-talking-horses under the title “Equine flu: doomsday scenario avoided but no room for complacency | Greg Wood”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
