Boredom among side effects of herpes quarantine at Gulfstream

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Steve Towne has been around racetracks for more than five decades. He’s accustomed to going to work between 4:30 and 5 a.m. every morning.

But for the past week, Towne has had little to do until 10 a.m., when he’s finally able to send the first of the four horses he has stabled at Gulfstream Park out to train.

Towne is among a handful of trainers housed in Gulfstream’s Barn 5, which under quarantine because a horse from that barn died and subsequently tested positive for the Equine herpesvirus last weekend. The quarantine is scheduled to continue through next Monday, when all horses in the barn will be tested by the Florida Department of Agriculture. If all tests return negative, the quarantine will be lifted.

Horses in Barn 5 are not allowed to train until the rest of the horses are finished, and can’t race across town at Gulfstream Park West.

“It’s been a little boring, waiting around until 10 to train each morning,” Towne said. “I still get up and drive to work at the regular time, then just hang around and wait. I’m too used to getting up at 4:30 and, to be honest, if I waited around much longer to come to work, the traffic would be too bad anyway.”

Towne said that aside from the boredom, the quarantine hasn’t been too much of an inconvenience, although like everyone else he’s hoping it will all come to an end next week.

“I only have four horses right now, and fortunately my rider chose to stick with me,” Towne said. “He was freelancing between barns, which he cannot do now, so it is costing me more money because I have to pay him extra to make up for the mounts he’s losing.

“Everyone has to wash their hands and feet every time they come in contact with one of the horses here after they train, and we have to take their temperature twice a day and keep a log of the results. So far, everyone in the barn has been okay.”

Towne, 64, began hanging around the racetrack with his father when still in grade school. He won his first race as a licensed trainer at Gulfstream Park in 1976.

“In all the years I’ve been on the racetrack, I’ve never been directly involved in a quarantine situation like this, but luckily I got a good win in right before it began last week,” said Towne, referring to Metaphorically’s victory in a $12,500 starter allowance race Nov. 6.

“I’ll miss entering two horses through the 21st. If all the tests come back good, I might be able to enter for the last two days of the meet over there at Gulfstream West.”