Slippery Slope

Activists in Australia are feeling pretty good.

Racing Victoria, the authority with jurisdiction over the Melbourne Cup, have introduced changes in procedure for overseas-trained entries in this year’s race.

According to Charlie Fellowes, these will make it ‘impossible’ for European challengers to compete.

Charlie, who trains Prince of Arran, placed three times in the contest, expresses sympathy for RV, which is under pressure from animal welfare groups, but points out that parts of their report ‘actually doesn’t make sense’.

Horses will be required, at their owner’s expense, to undergo tests in their own country before travelling, more tests when they arrive, more whilst in quarantine and before the off.

It is possible that RV, in order to assuage aggressive opponents, have rushed legislation through which, although it doesn’t ban foreign entries, makes taking a horse around the world - difficult in the first place - just too much bother.

Some fear that the measures are not based on reason or evidence, but on the need to temporarily escape the noise of protesters.

If so, there are those who wonder what concessions will be made when those same zealots, flushed with success, return in 2022 with new demands.