Equestrian rider hopeful of Beijing berth

Canberra paralympic hopeful Rob Oakley says he is confident of making the fifth and final spot in the Australian equestrian team.

Mr Oakley is one of three riders short listed for the last spot in the team.
He says he is happy with his performance so far, given his horse spent much of last year with an injury and the equine influenza outbreak hampered competition and training.
Mr Oakley will know in June whether he has been selected to compete in the three day dressage event in Beijing.
"I'm very confident, I've got a really good horse, and we're getting better every day. As I say we've only had four or five weeks to prepare and so every day we get a little bit better and we're training well, so I'm very confident that we'll get that spot," he said.
Mr Oakley says he has a rigorous training schedule ahead with a few local and interstate competitions before the selectors make a final decision.
"I'm very happy that I've been able to beat some of the more established combinations," he said.

Diary may hold key to the mystery of Phar Lap's death

IT HAS been several years now since The Age, in articles by Patrick Bartley, revealed that the most likely cause of the death of Australia's great racehorse Phar Lap was accidental arsenic poisoning in a tonic administered by his devoted handler Tommy Woodcock.The theory was hotly disputed and pooh-poohed in other newspapers, mainly by friends of the late Tommy Woodcock rather than any real evidence to the contrary.

Now, 76 years after Phar Lap died at Menlo Park in California on April 5, 1932, the evidence to support the accidental poisoning theory has finally come to light in a diary kept by his trainer Harry Telford. A quick glance at the diary leaves no doubt that Telford was a trainer ahead of his time. Many of his treatments are still in use today, in one form or another.
Some of the staple ingredients included arsenic and strychnine, both deadly poisons if used incorrectly, as well as cocaine and caffeine, and a popular tonic of the day was Fowler's Solution, which was arsenic-based and administered to Phar Lap throughout his racing career.
Fowler's Solution was a great pick-me-up and horses taking it invariably looked pictures of health. The arsenic, however, took a long time to leave the body and constant or over-use produced a build-up of the poison in the system that could be deadly.
For all his loveable qualities, Woodcock was a very unworldly young man in his early 20s when he accompanied Phar Lap to the US and then to Mexico early in 1932.
It took Phar Lap three weeks as deck cargo on a freighter, without the benefit of stabilisers, pitching and tossing across the Pacific. In such conditions, it is reasonable to assume that Phar Lap may have gone off his feed from time to time and that Woodcock supplemented his diet with Fowler's Solution or some of Telford's other preparations, unaware that the horse was building up dangerous levels of arsenic.
Telford, who had a brother who was a chemist — hence his knowledge of such things — was also in dispute with owner Dick Davis at the time and remained in Australia, so there is no mention in the diary of what he might have recommended for Phar Lap on the trip to the US.
What we do know is that Phar Lap made a brilliant recovery from the arduous voyage and a cut hoof, which probably required further treatment, after he arrived in Mexico and won the Agua Caliente Handicap Handicap on March 20, 1932, at that time the richest race in the world. Two weeks later, Phar Lap died in Woodcock's arms after making a 1000-kilometre float trip back to California.
Years later, Telford gave the diary to his then track rider Ernie Fellows, who later became a celebrated trainer in France.
The diary was passed down to Fellows' son John, who also was a successful trainer in Europe and is now living in Melbourne.
Fellows has decided to sell the diary and it will be offered for auction in Melbourne on April 23.

Olympians' food spiked with paperclips

• 15 muffins spiked at Olympic function
• 90 elite athletes in attendance
• At least two people bit into the muffins

AT LEAST five Beijing-bound Olympians were exposed to metal-laced muffins in the second major food contamination scare this month.
Police have confirmed paperclips were found in up to 15 chocolate muffins served last week at a Queensland University of Technology function for 90 elite athletes.
The scare came two days after police stepped up a nationwide investigation into contaminated meat and frozen products after a fifth piece of metal was found in supermarket sausages in South Australia.
But police ruled out any links with the latest incident, which has led to three employees being stood down from the city's popular Merlo Kitchen Catering Company.
Up to five Olympians including breastroker Christian Sprenger and rhythmic gymnast Ayiesha Johnston were at the morning tea.
They, however, did not eat the chocolate-chip muffins.
It is believed at least two people bit into the muffins but no one was injured.
Separate investigations have been launched by police, Queensland Health and the Merlo Kitchen Catering Company, which supplied the baked treats.
Company director Dean Merlo said three staff from the company's Newmarket catering wing were stood down with pay.
He said it was still unclear whether the paperclips were baked into the muffins or inserted afterwards but said there was no risk of contaminated food at the nine Merlo Bars across Brisbane.
"That food is only used for private functions and we've kept the contaminated pieces as evidence for the police with the rest in quarantine," he said.
"We naturally are horrified and I personally hate to think any of our employees would be involved with something like this."
Sprenger said he was shocked to hear of the contamination because there were no announcements at the event.
"I didn't even know about it until now," he said.
"You freak out a little bit when you hear of food being contaminated with metal and it's definitely a concern.
"Luckily I didn't eat anything but it's not the best thing to hear about when you're preparing for the Olympics. The less distractions the better."
QUT vice-chancillor Peter Coaldrake was at the morning tea but also did not not hear of the scare until hours later.
"The matter was taken very seriously by all parties and it was reported to Queensland Health and the police immediately," he said.
"It was a one-off incident and it's very fortunate damage has not been done. But there's lessons to be learnt from this and I'm sure there will be a heightened attention on preparation and food safety."

EI Vaccine Side-Effects Blamed For Irregular Blood Counts

The aftermath of the equine influenza crisis "is an increasing number of racehorses unable to reach peak performance because of reactions to the vaccines imported to defeat the outbreak," reported The Australian newspaper. The claims "came mostly from Victorian trainers whose horses were vaccinated as a precautionary measure, despite protests that as the state was not affected by EI it was dangerous to expose the animals to the virus". Irregular white cell counts "leaving horses lethargic or with a mild temperature are consistent with forecasts from the vaccine's distributors, who suggested 5% of stock would experience mild, short-term side-effects"; however some trainers "are claiming the onset of respiratory problems is linked to the inoculations & the side-effects are more serious". The newspaper interviewed a series of trainers, however Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy retorted: "Trainers grasp at straws when horses perform poorly. Not every horse comes up every preparation. A study may show otherwise, but I've seen no evidence of it in Sydney."