Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom
That is serious, has it ever happened before that everything was shut down?
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From The Racing Post:
Have there been outbreaks of equine influenza in the past?
Yes. Mandatory vaccination of racehorses was introduced by the Jockey Club in 1981 following an outbreak in 1979 which caused widespread disruption. A further outbreak occurred in 1989 in which vaccinated horses were not protected. The most major recent outbreak was in 2003 when more than 1,000 horses were affected in 21 yards in Newmarket. However, racing continued during that period.
Probably the nearest we came was in 2001 with the foot and mouth crisis which meant that as lot of racecourses were in infected areas they were not allowed to race. This included the Cheltenham festival being cancelled. For those not aware The Cheltenham Festival is jump racing's equivalent of Royal Ascot or The Breeders Cup. It's actually more popular than Ascot and has some of the biggest betting turnover races of the year with attendances of up to 70,000 on each of the four days.
It isn't unusual to lose several days racing at this time of year due to bad weather but at least there are a handful of all weather flat meetings. However, even they've been stopped now so this is pretty grim.
