薜達志:"爸爸9成9出席安田"by scmp
A trip to the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo for the world's joint top-rated miler, Good Ba Ba, has lurched from most unlikely to extremely likely - all in a day.
The trip had been in doubt with the possibility jockey Olivier Doleuze would not be allowed to enter Japan, due to his cocaine positive five years ago, and his tribulations regarding a vitamin tonic this week further complicated the situation until he was unconditionally cleared by the Jockey Club. But no sooner had trainer Andreas Schutz received indications that Doleuze's visa would be issued in the coming days than a foot and mouth disease ban on Good Ba Ba's regular feed from England became a new hurdle. "We have built a high international profile with this horse this season and it was unacceptable to expect him to go and compete there at a disadvantage," Schutz said yesterday. "I didn't want to use the Japanese feed and that would have meant only feeding him on oats and carrots - it's like saying to a runner he can race in the marathon but he could only do it on a diet of French fries," he said. :yyy: A foot and mouth scare in the UK in August last year had seen an international ban on certain farm products from England, but those bans were lifted in December 31 and the country declared free of foot and mouth again in February. However, the Japanese authorities contended that Good Ba Ba's feed was still banned from importation. But an e-mail from the Japan Racing Association yesterday afternoon confirmed that the UK was now considered officially free of the disease and that Good Ba Ba's feed would be allowed. "Things have dramatically changed with that e-mail and I am much happier now than I had been. Before this, there was only a slim chance he would go - now there is only a slim chance he will not go," Schutz said. "I have been to Japan with horses five times before and the usual situation is that the horse arrives before the feed - which means feeding him oats and carrots only for a few days, as we did last year. "The feed has to be imported from my source by the Japanese, you cannot bring it yourself. Now that it has been approved, Good Ba Ba's feed will arrive a day or so after he does, which is acceptable." The situation had some echoes of "Prawngate" in 2001, when Japanese authorities initially banned a Yasuda Kinen defence by Hong Kong's Fairy King Prawn, then the world's top rated sprinter miler, due to a foot and mouth disease crisis in the UK. After fierce lobbying by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and trainer Ivan Allan, the issue was eventually overcome and Fairy King Prawn took his place in the race, finishing ninth. "The horse himself is in great shape," Schutz reported.
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