Multiple Cranbourne stables in lockdown, Covid-19 test results pending
Testing of more than 100 Cranbourne-based stable staff employed by a range of trainers for Covid-19 was yesterday undertaken after the industry in Victoria on Friday was thrown into chaos when an employee of Richard Laming’s returned positive to the illness.
Seven Cranbourne stables – Laming, Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, Wendy Kelly, Nathan Dunn, Michael Trotter, Adrian McGregor and Tom Nikolic – were all placed in lockdown on the advice of Racing Victoria’s chief medical officer.
Three jockeys – Michael Walker, Jason Benbow and apprentice Alexandra Bryan – were stood down after riding work for Laming last week. Busuttin and Young’s eight horses entered for yesterday’s Moonee Valley and Wangaratta meetings were scratched, while Laming and Cranbourne trainer Wendy Kelly also had their Valley runners withdrawn.
The entire Cranbourne Training Centre was shut yesterday as a precaution and the course was undergoing a deep clean as will Laming’s complex.
The actions taken by the affected trainers and Racing Victoria was supported by Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton who also said there was no reason for racing to stop.
“All of it will be related to who the close contacts are and whether there are links to some of the other races that might be on-going,” Professor Sutton said at the government’s daily press conference.
“But it doesn’t mean the whole industry needs to shut down. It’s obviously related to a particular staff or an individual associated with one site and they have made a choice about any connection with other races today.”
Meanwhile, Laming said the female staff member who was diagnosed with Covid-19 had contracted it from a family member who does not work in the racing industry.
“She’s not very well … I’ve spoken to her last night and this morning and she doesn’t sound great,” Laming told RSN927 yesterday.
“She has caught it from a family member who doesn’t work in racing, so it hasn’t come from a racing identity. It (Covid-19) is like electricity, it’s blind and it sneaks up on you, but until it gets close to home you don’t realise how dangerous it is.
“She called in sick on Monday and Tuesday which was great and she was still crook on Wednesday so she went and got tested and the test came back yesterday (Friday) at 4pm. It’s quite frightening once it gets on your doorstep.”
Trent Busuttin said Racing Victoria had made the right call to scratch many Cranbourne-trained horses from yesterday’s meetings.
The trainer also said that he and Young had made the call to gallop the majority of their team last Thursday instead of yesterday because of the weather forecast,
It meant that the likes of Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m)-bound colt Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) had not missed any pivotal work ahead of the spring.
Busuttin told Racing.com: “You either go Tuesday to Thursday or Tuesday to Saturday and we just play it by ear. The weather forecast was terrible for later in the week so they all worked on Thursday which is fortunate.”
Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive Neil Bainbridge said trainers were supportive of the decision to shut the track yesterday.
“There will be a thorough deep-cleaning done throughout the day today at the Cranbourne Training Complex as a proactive measure.” Bainbridge told Racing.com.
“Saturday is one of the quieter days out of the six days but there were quite a few horses that would have worked this morning.
“We have spoken to trainers and they are supportive and comfortable with the decision.
“A lot of them these days have things like treadmills and walking machines and there are still a lot of Cranbourne trainers that train externally on their own properties, so we don’t believe it is an impediment of any significance.
“We have our fingers crossed for the young girl that contracted the virus. She’s been well looked after and our thoughts are with her and hoping for a speedy recovery.”
Cranbourne trainers who had runners at Moonee Valley yesterday that were not scratched were segregated from horses trained out of other centres.
“We’ve done quite a few things today that are an overstep of what we really need to do,” Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson told Racing.com.
“One of them was shutting down the Cranbourne Training Centre this morning and the other one was separating the Cranbourne horses at the track today. That’s because we can and it’s another thing we can put in place.
“We weren’t particularly concerned about those horses at Moonee Valley today. It was something we knew we could do so we thought we would.”
Results from the extensive Covid-19 tests taken yesterday are expected to be known this morning.