Fed: Queanbeyan club anxiously awaits horse flu results

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2007
Fed: Queanbeyan club anxiously awaits horse flu results

CANBERRA, Aug 31 AAP - The Queanbeyan Racing Club, just outside Canberra, is anxiously
awaiting test results on a horse showing signs of equine influenza (EI).

The racehorse was tested after its temperature was abnormally high.

"This horse had visible signs of distress - which is not unusual for a horse in winter
- and therefore it's temperature was checked and found to be abnormal - once again not
unusual - but every precaution has to be taken," Queanbeyan Racing Club President Neil
Head said today.

Mr Head said the horse's temperature had now returned to normal.

But it could take up to 24 hours for the test results to come through.

"I'm told that the bad news comes back quickly and the good news takes longer," Mr Head said.

But even so, everyone involved in the club was on tenterhooks today.

"(They're) very anxious because even the best case (scenario) is very difficult with
no races and so forth, so we've got the horses training and everybody's got the bills
coming in and no income," he said.

"The very best circumstances are diabolical and the very worst is unthinkable."

The Queanbeyan Racing Club holds 20 races every year and was supposed to be hosting
a meet tomorrow which it hopes to postpone to next Saturday.

But that depends on whether the racing ban is lifted in NSW.

Across the border, in the ACT, the ban on all horse movements has been extended indefinitely
today, which means a race meeting at Thoroughbred Park in Canberra is unlikely to proceed
next Friday.

AAP kc/cdh/bwl

KEYWORD: STALLIONS QUEANBEYAN

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