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SYDNEY,Australia-Australian authorities canceled thoroughbred racing in a second state on Tuesday, including the iconic outback Birdsville races, as the nation's first outbreak of equine flu spread.Security at the Asia Pacific leaders summit in Sydney next week was also dealt a blow on Tuesday when mounted police horses were diagnosed with the flu, ruling out a major crowd control measure.The equine flu outbreak forced a national three-day racing lock down last Thursday and a national ban on horse movements until Friday, August 31. The worst affected state New South Wales has banned racing indefinitely.On Tuesday, Queensland state canceled racing until next week as more cases of equine flu were detected."Racing won't be occurring anywhere around Queensland, including Birdsville, this weekend," Queensland Racing Minister Andrew Fraser told reporters."We've been trying everything we can to be able to have racing proceed at Birdsville this weekend, but unfortunately the risk has been assessed...(as) unacceptable," Fraser said.Birdsville's races attract more than 6,000 tourists to the dusty track, where drinking beers competes heavily with racing."We were hopeful because of the remote nature of the region...there might have been some varying of the rules," said Birdsville Race Club President David Brook.The highly contagious disease is not infectious to humans but has the same debilitating effect on horses as influenza has on people; causing high fevers, coughing, sneezing and lack of appetite. In rare cases, it can be fatal to horses.More than 60 horses have been diagnosed with equine flu and hundreds more horses are suspected of being infected. No thoroughbred racing horses have been diagnosed with flu.Queensland Racing Limited Chairman Bob Bentley said he believed there would be no racing in Queensland for the foreseeable future. "It's highly doubtful we could race before next Wednesday at the earliest," he said.Racing to resume
The racing shutdown was costing the industry tens of millions of dollars each day, said officials.
Shares in Australian betting firms fell for a second day, with top wagering group Tabcorp Holdings Ltd down another 3 percent. Tabcorp has warned it expects to lose about A$150 million ($124 million) in turnover from a week of no racing.Racing will resume in the southern state of Victoria on the weekend, providing no horses are diagnosed with equine flu. Victoria has had no cases of equine flu. Racing is also expected to resume on the weekend in the states of South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania and the Northern Territory.Australia has some of the toughest quarantine rules in the world, but officials suspect the nation's first outbreak of equine flu may have come from Japan, which has just been hit by a much larger outbreak.Racing was canceled in Japan last weekend for the first time in more than 35 years after almost 100 horses tested positive.Trackwork resumed at Sydney's premier racecourse on Tuesday after horses were cleared of equine flu. Sydney's Royal Randwick was locked down on Monday while horses were tested.The outbreak of equine flu has occurred on the eve of Australia's thoroughbred breeding season, when some of the world's top stallions arrive from the northern hemisphere.Some 40 international stallions have been quarantined in Australia and the New Zealand government has closed its borders to horses from Australia, including dozens of top American, European and Asian stallions worth an estimated $500 million.
As in the days of Noah....
