Belmont's Barn 15 under 21-day quarantine after positive EHV test

Barn 15 at Belmont Park has been placed under a 21-day quarantine after test results confirmed a case of equine herpesvirus in that barn, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday.

Tests conducted at Cornell University on Cute Curls, an unraced 3-year-old filly trained by Danny Gargan who was euthanized Saturday after exhibiting acute neurological symptoms, confirmed she had EHV. No other horses in barn 15 have presented symptoms or developed fever, according to a press release from the New York Racing Association.

Barn 15 was placed under quarantine at 3 p.m. on Saturday and will remain under quarantine through at least Feb. 24. The quarantine procedures are overseen by Dr. Sarah Hinchliffe, the director of NYRA’s veterinary department, in consultation with the New York State Gaming Commission.

There are 34 horses stabled in Barn 15, which includes horses trained by Gargan, Jim Ryerson, and Gustavo Rodriguez. Both Gargan and Rodriguez had horses who were stabled in that barn race at Aqueduct on Saturday. They were shipped from Belmont to Aqueduct before NYRA became aware of the suspected case of EHV.

Those horses will not be permitted to enter races during the 21-day quarantine period and they will be permitted to train only after the general horse population is done training. NYRA will make accommodations for those horses to train after regular training hours.

While horses are stabled at Belmont, racing is being conducted at Aqueduct. Horses from Parx Racing, including Withers winner Uncle Heavy and Withers fourth-place finisher Deposition, were not allowed to return to Parx, according to David Osojnak, the racing secretary at Parx, after consultation with track and Pennsylvania state veterinarians. Uncle Heavy was shipped to a farm about 20 minutes outside of Parx, according to his trainer Butch Reid.

Deposition was shipped back to Belmont and was put in barn 5, typically used as a quarantine barn for European shippers. Rory’s Orchard, a horse who shipped to Aqueduct from Parx to race Sunday, was to remain in New York after the race.

Super Chow, who won the Grade 3 Toboggan at Aqueduct after shipping from Laurel about a week before the race, will remain at Belmont, according to trainer Jorge Delgado, who said the horse would be pointed to the Grade 3, $175,000 Tom Fool at Aqueduct on March 2.

Laurel was not permitting horses to race in New York and return to that track. Mission Beach, who shipped in from Laurel for Brittany Russel and who finished seventh in the Withers, had to remain in New York. Trainer Lacey Gaudet scratched a horse from Sunday’s eighth race at Aqueduct because the horse would not have been permitted to return.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.