BALLARAT
BALLARAT COME TO LIFE MDN Race 1 - 1:00pm
1,200 m
EXCHANGES

FLEMINGTON
STREETS ICE CREAM STAKES Race 1 - 1,000 m
JULICH
NTNL JOCKEY CELEBRATION DAY Race 5 - 1,400 m
EMBLEM OF LIBERTY
ESTEE
BLAMEY STAKES Race 6 - 1,600 m
DOCTOR FREMANTLE
A T A/ BOB HOYSTED HCP Race 9 - 1,000 m
COMMON INTEREST
GEELONG
CUSTODIAN TRAVEL & CRUISE MDN Race 2 - 1,705 m
L'HERITIER
CHISHOLM PETROLEUM MDN PLATE Race 3 - 1,503 m
MINNESOTA HUSSLE
LAURIE&PAULA FOR BREAKFAST-68 Race 5 - 1,705 m
VIMY
JACOBS CREEK MOSCATO HCP (72) Race 6 - 1,203 m
DOMINGUIN
RANDWICK
TURNPOINT RANDWICK GUINEAS Race 6 - 1,600 m
THE COMEDIAN
TURNPOINT WENONA GIRL HCP Race 8 - 1,200 m
MARCHELLE BELLE
BENALLA
BENALLA LEISURE PARK MDN PLATE Race 4 - 1,612 m
GALLANT LADY
KARN STATION HCP (68) Race 5 - 2,052 m
PHEROMONE

A Melting Pot Of Players Feel the EI Heat

AS APPEARED IN THE AGE ON FRIDAY

Don't think the EI crisis isn't hurting. It may even force some trainers to give the game away.

Since the outbreak of the crippling equine influenza virus in NSW and Queensland, it has been a source of constant annoyance to me that our industry is viewed as a collective of silvertails who can bear any economic burden that this insidious infection can throw at us.

To those Australians not intimately involved in racing - and to some government departments, for that matter - horse racing in this country is driven by the very wealthy. And it seems the elite, who have untold funds, can survive anything.

Perhaps that could be the case in England, where the very rich are the only ones to enjoy the luxury of horse racing, but here in Australia we have owners and breeders from all parts and from financially diverse backgrounds.

We have a melting pot of players unlike anywhere else in the world. Front-bar owners, as many trainers call them, are a real and relevant part of the fabric of Australian racing. They are the owners who put the money aside each week just to be a partner in a syndicate. All syndicators will tell you than after August 25 and the realities of EI hit home, their phones stopped ringing.

In NSW and Queensland horse people are the ones really feeling the squeeze as EI spreads.

We were naive about the infection's impact. I think we were slow to get moving - we read about Japan having the infection but merely thought it was a few runny noses.

No doubt the Department of Primary Industry in NSW missed the start. It could have contained Centenary Park, the horse area near Randwick racecourse where it hit with a sledge-hammer, and allowed the infection to run its course and burn out.

It didn't. In defence of the department, some horses might have been in the early incubation period of the virus and, therefore, gone undetected and slipped through the net.

But the knock-on effect is catastrophic. The feed merchant, the float driver, the horse-breaker - they've all felt the thrust of EI as it has moved its way down the pecking order of racing.

I sympathise with my colleagues from the north for the pain they must be feeling. And at times I get the impression a few scientists relish the study of a new virus and have placed the Sydney stables in a laboratory environment.

You can hear the strain and frustration in trainers' voices as they try to explain to the media their plight. They can't open a calendar to plan horses' programs. They can't set a horse on a specific path. It must be heartbreaking to tell an owner that nothing has changed except the feed bills. I wonder if some trainers will walk away or retire as the rigours of not knowing what's next become too debilitating.

While finger-pointing has become an art form in recent weeks, Victoria has to make a vital and important step in the next three weeks.

The state must obtain vaccinations and immediately go out to spelling paddocks and inject horses and two weeks later give them their booster, so that when the spring horses are sent for a spell we will have a new, robust group to underpin our summer and autumn racing.

In two weeks' time all horses in work will have received their booster and, hopefully, we will be insulated from the devastation our northern neighbours have suffered.

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