Racing Victoria

International horses flying to Australia for the Melbourne Spring Carnival will no longer be required to take part in a scintigraphy exam prior to flying to Australia, Racing Victoria announced on Wednesday. The stringent scans were started last year in an attempt to reduce the rate of injuries and fatalities. These tests were required to be paid for by the horses' owners, and led to fewer internationals participating at the iconic carnival. Racing Victoria's statement read as follows: "Upon recommendation of the international working group, the RV Board has endorsed...

Seeking a full stop to the spate of high-profile fatalities in the race that stops Australia, Racing Victoria this year tightened the veterinary screws. The practical rollout of these efforts can hardly be described as an unadulterated success, however. One of these new measures was a precautionary CT scan of all runners in the days leading up to the G1 Melbourne Cup--a target that hit the skids when Racing Victoria's new $1.27-million CT unit suffered a malfunction with the Cup field only half scanned, leaving the rest to be X-rayed...

Ismail Mohammed's G1 Goodwood Cup runner-up Away He Goes (Ire) (Farhh {GB}) has been ruled out of the Nov. 2 G1 Melbourne Cup with a tendon injury. The 5-year-old gelding, who is owned by Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman, was second to the star stayer Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) in the July 27 Goodwood Cup prior to finishing seventh in the Ebor H. Earlier in the season, he had hit the board in Meydan's G2 Dubai Gold Cup. "To some extent it was good that it was picked up so early but...

Trainer Charlie Fellowes said he fears changes to the qualification criteria, mainly for overseas runners, for the Melbourne Cup will make it "nigh on impossible" for European-trained horses to compete in Australia's most famous race. The Melbourne Cup has come under increased pressure in recent years after a series of high-profile breakdowns in The Race That Stops A Nation, with international challengers seemingly disproportionately afflicted. As such, the number of international horses at the Werribee International Quarantine Centre will be limited to 24 (it was 42 in 2018). International shippers...

Following on from Friday's news that Racing NSW would place a freeze on prizemoney won by Phoenix Thoroughbreds horses until money laundering allegations are resolved in the U.S., Racing Victoria has followed suit. Phoenix Founder Amer Abdulaziz was named in a U.S. federal court trial in November 2019 as allegedly being involved in a money laundering operation and as having stolen €100-million from OneCoin, a sham cryptocurrency he purportedly helped to run. Abdulaziz and Phoenix Thoroughbreds have denied the allegations. A spokesperson for Racing Victoria told TDN AusNZ, "While these...

Australian runners trained by Aidan and his son Joseph O'Brien have undergone tests by Racing Victoria to see if they came back positive for the synthetic substance Zilpaterol, which had been found in contaminated GAIN feed. Both O'Briens and Aidan's other son Donnacha were forced to scratch all of their runners on Arc Sunday after they tested positive for the substance. The O'Briens' 10 horses arrived in Melbourne on Friday night and are under quarantine for two weeks at the International Horse Centre in Werribee. A statement by Racing Victoria...

Godolphin's Newmarket-based trainers Charlie Appleby and Saeed bin Suroor have informed Racing Victoria that they will not send horses to this year's Melbourne spring carnival amid the coronavirus pandemic. Both trainers have enjoyed success at the carnival as of late; Charlie Appleby won the 2018 G1 Melbourne Cup with Cross Counter (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}), while bin Suroor has saddled three runners up in the great race while Benbatl (GB) won the G1 Ladbrokes S. in 2018 and was second to Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G1 Cox Plate....