Aqueduct: Klesaris still hurting from quarantine

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Steve Klesaris has had a winter of discontent and it has little to do with the weather.

A quarantine situation at Parx in Pennsylvania due to a case of equine herpesvirus last November prevented his horses from training for two months, disrupting his plans to set up divisions in New York and Florida for the winter.

The quarantine was lifted in early January, but without being able to train, Klesaris has run only two horses since Nov. 8, both at Parx.

“After not training for two months, it’s kind of a rebuilding phase,” Klesaris said Friday at Belmont, where he has five horses stabled. “It knocks you down completely. Now, try to get them ready in January and February after not doing anything for two months.”

Klesaris said that on the day the quarantine went into effect he had 10 horses scheduled to ship to New York and six heading to Gulfstream Park.

A horse under another trainer’s care along with one of Klesaris’s horses based at Parx did test positive for equine herpesvirus, and were immediately sent to a clinic in New Jersey. Klesaris had 16 other healthy horses in a barn that was shared with other trainers, and the entire barn was in quarantine for two months. Unlike in other jurisdictions, which typically permit quarantined horses to train after regular training hours are complete, all 32 horses housed there had to stay in the barn.

“Pennsylvania would not permit us to use the racetrack, unlike how it would have been handled in many other places,” Klesaris said.

Klesaris had to send many of his horses to Ocala, Fla., including the filly Miss Loretta Lynn, who won her debut at Belmont sprinting on the turf in October and was being pointed to turf stakes at Gulfstream. Klesaris has five horses at Gulfstream; he claimed them all at the meet. He still has seven at Parx.

In a few months, Klesaris hopes to have a full complement of horses in New York.

“I’m absolutely here to stay,” Klesaris said. “I sold my barn at Fair Hill with the plan of coming back here. The quarantine brought everything to a standstill.”

Klesaris said the horse of his that had the equine herpesvirus is doing fine now and is wintering at his owner’s farm in Delaware.