Overseas runners may be kept out of Melbourne Cup
Australian racing may be fiercely proud of its most treasured prize but it appears that the foreign challengers for the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup have as much to fear from the bureaucrats as the local horses.
The Victoria Racing Club has done it best to make this year’s anniversary renewal of the Cup, at Flemington on November 2nd, as attractive to visiting runners as possible, with the total prize money fund increased to Aus$6million. However, the foreign policy has met with resistance from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.
They have as yet, after much delay, to give final approval of the new quarantine facility at Werribee, an outer suburb of Melbourne. Werribee also has a large sewage treatment centre and the current tangle of red tape is already causing a stink of its own, with three international horses that were due in being kept out of the country.
Given the time that horses have to remain in isolation, and then the time they need to be prepared for races, there are growing fears of the impact that local government intransigence could have on both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, if overseas runners are kept out of Australia for much longer.
As ever the devil would appear to be in the detail with the disagreement centering on quarantine manuals. The new complex had been due to be opened yesterday by Rob Hulls, the Victoria Racing Minister, but that was cancelled in favour of a verbal slanging match between officials from the AQIS and their the counterparts at Racing Victoria Limited.
No great surprise that, when a speedy solution should be the top priority, more energy was being expended in pointing out just who is at fault, which came out roughly at a score draw. “We are disappointed at the delays we have faced in gaining approval for the Werribee International Horse Centre, especially as it has been completed and AQIS have provided in-principle approval,” Rob Hines, the Racing Victoria chief executive, told The Age. “This delay is all about the format of the operating manuals.”
For their part the claims emanating from federal government circles were that RVL officials and not AQIS had not successfully completed the manuals. The fear that haunts all those connected with RVL is that the approval of quarantine facilities is a matter of the utmost importance if the Melbourne Cup is to maintain its position in the international racing calendar, which can only be achieved with foreign-trained runners. "Racing Victoria has dispatched a team of specialists to Canberra to work alongside AQIS as they complete their approval process,'' Hines said. “We have and will continue to stress to AQIS that prompt approval of the centre is a matter of national importance.''
Imposing, a recent purchase from Sir Michael Stoute’s yard by the Lloyd Williams stable, is now provisionally booked to arrive on Saturday week.
The delay is just another concern for Luca Cumani as he attempts his next assault on the Melbourne Cup. The Newmarket trainer was runner-up with Purple Moon in 2007 and Bauer 12 months later and Bauer, off the track since with a tendon injury, could be one of three contenders for the year’s race – paperwork permitting - when the weights are revealed next week. But, as Cumani told The Times: “Bauer is still an imponderable but Manighar and Drunken Sailor are definitely going and will start their quarantine on September 8th before flying out a fortnight later.”
Bauer would not lack for local support as is he part-owned by Simon O’Donnell, the former Australia and Victoria cricketer, but he must prove his wellbeing in Britain beforehand. Two possible races at Goodwood or Windsor on Saturday have been ruled out by the change in weather leaving Cumani with a return to the drawing board. “He doesn’t like it soft so we will go where conditions are best. After such a long time off, one run won’t be sufficient, so we will look for another race before deciding if he is to travel.
“He had a tendon injury, which always leaves a question mark. The seeds of it were sown in his Cup run two years ago and it has been a long road back. You can never be confident from one day to the next but he has coped with all the work so far.”
Cumani found it hard to cope himself when Bauer was beaten just a nose by Viewed and it depended whether he looked at the exercise as a success to get so close or a failure not to complete the task successfully. “Pride and frustration, a bit of both,” he said. “I am always happy when they run well but to come so close for a second time was deflating, too.”
There will be plenty of people at RVL with a similar feeling just now.
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