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ABOVE: Andrew Balding after Kameko’s win in June’s 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
RIGHT: Doncaster’s COVID-19 screening process.
Part of the reason for the stiff upper lip no doubt lies in racing’s collective memory of another outbreak that swept through Britain less than two decades ago. The 2001 epizootic of foot-and-mouth disease caused a crisis in British agriculture. More than 6 million cows and sheep were slaughtered, and that year’s Cheltenham Festival was cancelled (a scalp that even COVID-19 couldn’t claim). By the time the disease had been brought under control, the crisis was estimated to have cost the UK £8 billion. Since then, biosecurity measures have been part of everyday life for many in the equestrian world. “We were on that, we had hand sanitizers liberally around the yard anyway and always have done,” says Balding. “So biosecurity measures are commonplace anyway. The one thing we’ve now had to do is take the
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 70
OPPOSITE: Michael Caulfield
temperatures of the staff as they arrive at work and just try to be as sensible as we can about the situation and not have outside people in.” “They’re used to living with viruses,” echoes Caulfield. “Horses have their own viruses, so they’re used to having their own tack, their own equipment.” The discovery of equine herpes at a show jumping venue in January, as well as the equine influenza outbreak a year earlier, may also have helped to prepare trainers for the current situation. The cultural emphasis on routine that many trainers take for granted is another positive example to the wider public, according to Caulfield. “One thing that has kept me going through this has been my routine, which I developed in racing back in 1980 when I joined as a young stable lad from school,” he acknowledges. “When