On the road (slowly) in Hong Kong

Sight Seeing in Hong Kong

A Message from Heath Ryan

Dear non-racing sector horse enthusiast,

The attached document will be presented to the government on or around 17 December with a view to securing funding which is appropriately tailored to cover costs in the non-racing sector which have been incurred as a result of EI.

Currently this document represents only the Olympic Disciplines, i.e. eventing, dressage, show-jumping and associated breeding programs. It is our feeling that this document can be used as a template by other non-racing aspects of the industry to produce an accurate assessment of what their section of the industry is losing, or their association is losing, or their members are losing, or their breed society is losing.

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Olympic Tickets now availble for purchase

CoSport, the Official Ticket Sales Agent of the Australian Olympic Committees, has commenced live ticket sales for the 2008 BeijingOlympic Games
Sales will be conducted on the company’s website at www.cosport.com.

They're on - or off, as the course caller puts it

HOW has Brooke Sexton, a clerk of the course at Royal Randwick, spent her days while Sydney racing has been tucked up in bed with a sniffly nose because of this wretched equine influenza?

"I've been doing basically nothing," she said. "Getting fat and drinking cocktails."
Sexton, 25, can laugh now but it has been tough for her and hundreds of others whose working lives were brought to a sudden halt on August 17 - the day EI was diagnosed in Sydney. The highly contagious disease swept through the state like a bushfire.

But racing returns to Royal Randwick this afternoon and about 30,000 people are expected at the course. Punting will not be easy but a clash between the world-class sprinter Takeover Target and the 2004 Golden Slipper winner, Dance Hero, will be a thriller. It seems everyone, from jockeys to barrier attendants to punters, mugs to the informed, is resuming after a 98-day spell.

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Vaccination

My horse received his first vaccination (via the EFA) five weeks ago yesterday. I rang the vet that gave him his shot to find out when he would receive his second to be told that second shots had been put on hold because the vet had not received payment for any of the first round. Who stuffed up this time the EFA or the DPI?

JH