Differences in flu protocols hamper Gai

CHAMPION trainer Gai Waterhouse has savaged government authorities over the protocols put in place to facilitate the transfer of horses between NSW and Victoria following last year's equine influenza outbreak, which will grossly limit her participation at Victoria's autumn festival.

Waterhouse will be restricted to just one runner, Dance Hero in the $1 million Newmarket Handicap at Flemington on March 8, because of the difference between horses that were infected with equine influenza and those that escaped the disease last year.
"It's a joke," Waterhouse said.
"The DPI (Department of Primary Industry) should be ashamed of themselves.
"They insisted all the horses be inoculated and then take up to three weeks to move them. It's absolutely crazy.
"It's impossible to get horses like Kingda Ka to Melbourne for the Australian Guineas. They are stuck in quarantine for three weeks because they never got equine influenza.
"Horses like Dance Hero, that have had EI, can be there in a couple of days. He'll be my only representative.
"The paperwork is just enormous and one department says one thing, while another says something else. It's tragic.
"Why shouldn't these horses be allowed to travel. They've been inoculated.
"I've put it in the 'too hard' basket. Hopefully it will be different in the spring.
"Let's move on. It is 2008 and we need to get up and going."

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