Will There be Japanese Horses in 2010 Melbourne Cup?

The first Japanese horse to run in the Melbourne Cup was Eye Popper who ran a solid 11th to Makybe Diva when she won the Melbourne Cup, for the third time, in 2005. In 2006 trainer Katsuhiko Sumii sent two horses Delta Blues and Pop Rock both owned by Katsumi Yoshida to contest our most famous race and the pair ran the quinella.

Equine Influenza Stopped the Japanese Horses in 2007

There were plans for Delta Blues to return for the 2007 Melbourne Cup to defend his win, but that was the year that the racing industry was hard hit by equine influenza (EI). In late August 2007 EI appeared in Australia and spread rapidly causing a ban of all horse movements both into and within Australia. This meant that no horses from New South Wales or Victoria could run in the Cup unless they had already travelled to Victoria prior to the travel ban.

Quarantine Restrictions Stopped the Japanese Horses in 2008 and 2009

The Japanese did not make it for the 2008 and 2009 Melbourne Cups because Bio-security Australia would not allow horses from Japan to travel directly into Australia. The quarantine rules stipulated that northern hemisphere horses be quarantined for 14 days in their home country and 21 days after arriving in Australia meaning they could not have a race start for at least 5 weeks. Horses from Japan had to be imported through an approved third country such as Hong Kong or Singapore, with quarantine periods required in these countries making it unacceptable to the Japanese connections.

What are Quarantine Restrictions for Japanese Horse in 2010?

Despite Japanese and Australian racing officials discussing the matter for years now, the quarantine arrangements are yet to be finalized for the 150th Melbourne Cup as they are waiting to see if the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service will approve the Japanese facilities.

Jaguar Mail won the one of the top staying races in Japan, the 2010 Group1 Tenno Sho over 3200m at Kyoto, recently and trainer Noriyuki Hori and owner Katsumi Yoshida are keen to get him to the Melbourne Cup. Other Japanese owners and trainers have also expressed great interest. There are still 6 months until the Cup and at this stage we don’t know if any Japanese horses will get here. If they get here expect them to be highly competitive. Remember the world record over 3200 metres is held by a Japanese horse called Deep Impact.

Jo Jackson

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