HORSE RACING: Race ban stymies trainer

24th September 2009

Hastings owner/trainer Tim Symes is still coming to terms with the news that he cannot race his horses until after October 7 because of the scare surrounding the highly infectious equine respiratory disease "strangles".

Symes and fellow owner/trainers Kay Cottle and Kelly Burne, also of Hastings, have received a report from New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) isolating all their horses from "all racing establishments for a minimum of 21 days after the last known case had run its course (the last case finished on September 16)".

The two-page finding, from NZTR chief veterinarian Andrew Grierson, informs the Bay trio they can enter races and trials after October 7 provided no other cases of strangles surface on their properties. The report was sent to Ross Neal, of NZTR racing operations, who is also the stipendiary at the Hawke's Bay Spring Carnival comprising three major racedays that feature premier races the Mudgway Stakes, Windsor Park Plate and Kelt Capital Stakes.

Symes' racehorses, Molly O'Reilly and Our Dan, were withdrawn from minor races in last weekend's Windsor raceday after several trainers/owners, including some from the Bay, complained about the risk of the disease to their animals.

Symes had been operating under close observation after a neighbouring Pakipaki property owner, Cottle, discovered a horse had contracted strangles almost a month ago. He had met the NZTR guidelines, but was incensed on the morning of the Windsor raceday to be informed his two horses had been scratched.

However, Symes, who is also a Hawke's Bay Racing committee member, told SportToday yesterday the NZTR still had a lot to do to put things right despite the report's disclosure.

"That doesn't mean I have to think they [NZTR] are right. I don't think they have made the right decision here," said Symes, who will not be able to race his horses in the minor races of the Kelt Capital raceday.

He felt NZTR should have counted the 21 days from September 8 - when the infected horse was first put in "total isolation" on the Cottle property because Burne suspected something was wrong with it - not September 16.

"However, that's the vet's [Grierson's] opinion and I've spoken to him today [yesterday] and he's standing by it."

Symes, who has never missed a Kelt Capital premier raceday meeting since its inception, questions whether NZTR venues such as Cambridge and Matamata, where up to 500 horses do trackwork, would close down the properties for 21 days if strangles surfaced within several days after the workout.

Compounding the strangles problem in the Bay is Cottle's revelation that her infected horse arrived here from the Karaka sales last month with several other horses.

The other horses were also transported to three other trainers and owners in Hastings, raising the question of whether the other three properties and their horses have been inspected and, more significantly, if one or more of the other horses on the Karaka sales truck are carriers of the disease.

In his report, Grierson reveals Burne has 15 horses on the 6ha Cottle property and uses the facilities too. Symes, on his adjacent property, has six retired horses who have no direct contact with any of Cottle or Burne's horses, but the latter two use his training track.

Symes, he reports, has five racehorses at his farmstead in Longlands, but when he goes to his trackwork property he uses a tie-up area and a separate wash-down bay at Cottle's property.

"The distance from the tie-up is approximately 30m from a barn where cases have been diagnosed," Grierson writes.

Seven horses on Cottle's property have been diagnosed with strangles to date and, SportToday reported yesterday, a retired gelding had been put down last week.

Grierson says the source of the infection has been linked to the NZ Bloodstock Winter Sales on August 2.

"This may have come from contamination of a transporter, as the incidence of strangles in the Waikato is endemic."

However, he says once strangles was diagnosed, all the horses on the Cottle property - minus the infected ones - were vaccinated with Equivac-S.

The ban yard was disinfected but the bedding was not replaced.

Two Cottle mares on the back of the property were beside a Burne-trained horse when they contracted the disease.

"The mares were not in contact with horses in the barn, but it is possible contaminated feed buckets or staff, mechanically, introduced the strangles bacteria to the mares," he writes.

Under the subhead of "risks", Grierson uses the third edition NZ Equine Research Foundation booklet to quote: "A horse infected by this organism does not show any clinical signs of illness for three to 14 days. The horse can, however, shed bacteria from its nasal passages four to seven days after infection."

He reveals the bacteria can survive in bedding and soil for at least eight months.

"The infection of the two [Cottle] mares highlights the importance of hygiene in eliminating mechanical transfer by people. There is no explanation how these two paddocked mares became infected."

He rules out the absence of an elevated temperature as an indicator of no infection and also reveals vaccinations can break down, "especially when there's a strong challenge".

With the Kelt Capital raceday looming, he highlights the importance of horses from the premier $1.2 million stakes going on to fly the New Zealand flag in Australia.

"If any horse was to develop strangles, then all horses racing that day would be unwelcome to race in Australia in October or the Melbourne November carnival, not to mention the possible disruption to training ruling out a trip."

He recommends adopting the hygiene guidelines of Cottle's veterinarian, Dr Richard McKenzie, of Hastings.

They include replacing bedding, the continuation of disinfecting feed bins and water troughs and avoid mixing and moving the horses.

He emphasises the need to identify that people are also a potential source of cross contamination of the non-notifiable disease.

* Opinion - page 16.