Nowra Races Still No-go Zone

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday January 23, 2008

By CHRIS ROOTS

THE frustration of equine influenza continues for Kembla Grange trainers after a plan to let them take horses to a Nowra race meeting was rejected by the Department of Primary Industries yesterday.

As the zones around the state were once again reduced, Kembla horses remain in limbo unable to travel an hour south for a race meeting at Nowra next week.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys made an approach to the DPI to allow Kembla horses to race at Nowra on January 29 but was knocked back and told that the earliest it could happen is March.

"We thought it would be a good test case for the system but the national body decided against it," V'Landys said.

"Bruce Christie (NSW DPI chief veterinarian) has done a great job for us throughout this crisis but unfortunately couldn't get this over the line.

"We understand that there are horses at Kembla that need to get to country meetings to be competitive and we were hoping this was a way of opening an avenue for those horses."

Kembla trainer Kerry Parker said it was only going to get harder for country class horses to win over the next month in the provincial area.

"You just have to look at all the horses coming back in Sydney to see how hard it will be here," Parker said.

Meantime Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said Monday's move, which reclassified several areas from red zones to amber was another positive step in having NSW EI-free by the end of March.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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