14th September – LIMITLESS LODGE SAFE FROM EQUINE INFLUENZA

The E.I virus is very close to Limitless Lodge with multiples of sick horses at Kulnura, Cooranbong, Morisset and Ourimbah. All horses on all our farms are fine. We are taking temperatures twice daily but so far so good. We are proceeding with business as normal, except we are unable to move horses between our farms, or to and from trainers or spelling farms. It is looking now very doubtful that we will be able to take our draft of horses to Hong Kong for the HKJC International Sale in December. The DPI and Federal Government are still resisting public pressure to vaccinate – one wonders how much more of a spread of the virus it will take before the authorities admit containment hasn’t worked.

13th September – EQUITANA POSTPONED UNTIL 2008

Australia’s major Equine Industry trade exhibition, Equitana, scheduled for early November in Melbourne has been postponed until November 2008. This is a tragedy for the organizers but it just shows the enormity of the crisis. At this stage, Victorian racing is going ahead. Everyone is fearful this virus will find its way to Victoria and disrupt the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

9th September – CHRIS KING WINS BLENHEIM CCI***

In another great week of eventing action abroad, Chris King riding The Secret Weapon was able to follow up his triumph at Barbury Castle CIC *** with a hard fought win over Kristina Cook and exciting young prospect, Miner’s Frolic. “Mr Consistency” Andrew Nicholson was again in the money at 3rd with Armada. Again the showjumping was close with only 2 clear rounds all day.

8th September – RACING RETURNS TO SYDNEY

Sydney conducted its first meeting for 3 weeks following the equine influenza epidemic at Warwick farm. It was a closed meeting with only horses trained at Warwick farm able to compete. Rosehill is hoping to hold another stand alone meeting in a fortnight. Randwick horses are now starting to recover after 98% of their horses were struck with the virus. All of these horses will need to be spelled so it is hard to imagine racing returning to normal before the beginning of 2008. Several major thoroughbred sales have been cancelled and the 2008 Magic Millions Premier Sale must now be in extreme doubt.

2nd September – WILLIAM FOX PITT WINS BURGHLEY CCI **** AGAIN

William caps off a fantastic winning year by riding Phillip Adkin’s Parkmore Ed to a nail biting win over a star studded field. William held on to defeat Polly Stockton and Andrew Hoy by the barest of margins. In the showjumping phase there were only 2 clear rounds out of 45, one of which was Harry Meade who was in fact the only rider to finish on his dressage score of 59.8 (45th after dressage). In this modern sport of eventing, it is almost unheard of to jump from 45th to 8th. Clayton Fredericks riding dressage leader, Nullabor had a great weekend finishing 6th.

25th August – EQUINE INFLUENZA BRINGS AUSTRALIA TO A STANDSTILL

After the first cases were diagnosed with E.I at Australia’s Quarantine centre at Eastern Creek, the virus was then able to escape into the general horse population. Horse movements were banned immediately and all racing and competitions were suspended Australia wide indefinitely. NSW and QLD are the only 2 states affected so far. This is a sad day for our supposed rugged quarantine line of defense which has been shown to be very flimsy. The virus arrived with 3 stallions from Japan, who are in the middle of their own epidemic. Somehow, it was then able to leave the facility. The finger pointing and blame game is not important, but obviously a strategy for it not being repeated is essential. The Federal Government has opened an immediate inquiry, lets hope that it’s honest and transparent. The emphasis is already on containment (maintained by a standstill) and not at this stage vaccinating.