British and Irish challengers may be forced to reconsider travelling to Australia for the spring races Down Under after 11 cases of an equine influenza-type virus were recorded.
All horse-racing in New South Wales and Queensland has been abandoned this weekend after 11 horses tested positive for an influenza type virus on Friday night, while Victorian authorities are currently in discussion on cancelling meetings in that state as well.
Racing authorities in NSW and Queensland made the decision to cancel all race meetings in both states following the positive tests which were conducted at the Centennial Park breeding ground in Sydney.
A five-kilometre exclusion zone has been established around Centennial Park but as several of these horses have travelled to rural meets in NSW prior to the quarantine being put in place, there are fears the equine influenza may have been introduced into the general horse population.
Such a scenario could lead to blanket bans on racing and horse transporting across the country for at least 30 days - there is already a ban on transporting in NSW - with this period possibly being extended depending on whether more cases of the virus appear.
Such a ban on racing and transporting, if it is put in place, could potentially affect the preparation of several horses for the upcoming spring carnival, while British, Irish and Japanese challengers at the spring races will be unlikely to make the trip down under.
It is understood that the horses which tested positive at Centennial Park were equestrian breeding horses and that the form of virus they have initially tested positive to is a less virulent form of the Equine Influenza (E1) virus than that detected in a northern hemisphere horse at Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine facility on Thursday.
However, tests are still being conducted on the 11 samples to determine whether this form of the virus is the same as the one which has stopped racing in Japan several times over the last 20 years.
The results of these tests will not be available until at least Tuesday, but fears that the virus has entered the general horse population are already mounting, especially as such an outbreak will cost the State governments and the racing industry millions of dollars.
Complicating the matter is the fact that humans can carry and transfer the E1 virus to horses without getting physically sick from it themselves.
Richard Freedman, brother of leading Australian trainer Lee Freedman, believes that an outbreak of Equine Influenza could be catastrophic to Australia's racing industry.
'This is the biggest issue Australia's racing industry has faced in decades,' Freedman told Foxsports morning news programme.
'We thought we had it contained to the quarantine stations but if those horses at Centennial Park have the virus, then it's in the general population and that's a disaster,' he added.
Freedman did believe that most of Australia's biggest stud operations, particularly the ones owned by overseas interests, would survive a blanket ban on transporting horses, but felt that several smaller operations could face financial ruin.
This is the first time Equine Influenza has appeared in Australia.
