European carnival raiders face expensive trip
Owners of European challengers being aimed at this year’s Melbourne Spring Carnival are set to foot a hefty bill as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Entries for both the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) are set to be unveiled today and it is anticipated that the number travelling south could be lower than in recent years with owners facing a number of additional costs.
And in a further costly setback for the overseas contingent, it has emerged that the $100,000 participation subsidy paid to connections of horses who compete in the Caulfield Cup and then return to their home country has been scrapped this year as the Melbourne Racing Club looks to make financial adjustments as a consequent of the pandemic.
One planeload of 32 horses is set to head to Melbourne from Ireland via the UK this year, split evenly between one-way ticketholders and overseas-trained return travellers.
Quarantine restrictions, both equine and human, will equate to around $25,000 per horse, while the cost of travelling a horse one-way from Europe to Melbourne is expected to be as much as $35,000.
“There is a fee for the one-way tickets,” Racing Victoria’s general manager of international and racing operations, Paul Bloodworth told Racing.com
“When we announced that we were going to have the 16 one-way tickets, it was done on a cost-recovery basis.
“So, the fee is roughly what it would cost them if they went to the government (quarantine) facility at Mickleham. It’s slightly more but they have the luxury of having tracks to use and to stay in training (at Werribee).”
Overseas-trained horses who will race in Australia under a ‘return ticket’ will have their quarantine costs covered by RV.
Chris Burke, managing director of International Racehorse Transport, said the impact of Covid-19 had made it difficult for his company to secure aircraft to fly from Europe to Melbourne and as such IRT are requesting a non-refundable pre-commitment from would-be travellers to guarantee a place on the flight.
“Because of the high demand on air freight at the moment, getting aircraft is really difficult,” Burke told Racing.com.
“Typically when there’s hundreds of passenger flights departing in and out of Australia every day, in the belly of those passenger flights, in addition to your baggage, would be plenty of cargo coming in and out and that could include things like pharmaceuticals, PPE at the moment, food, electrical goods and so on.
“What’s happening now is because those passenger flights aren’t occurring, the freighters are extremely busy taking up that slack that’s been left by the lack of passenger aircraft.
“I’ve had to go to the owners of the horses and say to them that on Monday, August 31 I’m going to need your commitment on what you’re bringing because I don’t want to go and buy an aircraft and then you say a week later ‘It doesn’t matter, I’m not going to come’,” Burke added.