Entries being accepted from quarantined Barn 14
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLEFair Grounds received approval from the track stewards to begin accepting entries Wednesday from horses stabled in barn 14, which remains under quarantine because of two equine herpesvirus cases there.
No new cases in that barn, however, have been reported since Dec. 31, and barring another case, the barn’s quarantine will expire Jan. 13, the day for which entries Wednesday were being taken.
Trainer Michelle Lovell, whose horses haven’t been sick, occupies the bulk of the stalls in that barn. Her horses have been barred from racing since the quarantine was first imposed Dec. 26.
A quarantine of barn 36, which is wholly occupied by trainer Mike Stidham, is set to expire Jan. 14, so Fair Grounds was to start accepting entries for those horses again during the draw Friday. Fair Grounds and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture imposed a ban on horses entering and leaving the track Monday after a positive EHV-1 test in the receiving barn.
“We haven’t been informed yet about when horses might be allowed to ship in and out again,” said assistant racing secretary Scott Jones.
No horses outside barn 14, however, have tested positive for the more serious neuropathogenic subtype of the EHV-1 virus.
No plans yet for Green Mask
No plans have yet been set for Green Mask, who won the $75,000 Bonapaw Stakes on Dec. 17. Green Mask finished third in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint on the Dubai World Cup undercard in 2015, and that race has been considered again this year for the 6-year-old gelding, but Cox said nothing is set in stone for Green Mask.
Cox said he’d nominated the gelding to the $100,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint on Jan. 28, but Gulfstream, owing to the EHV-1 outbreak at Fair Grounds, is unlikely to be accepting Louisiana shippers at that point. Cox said Green Mask also would be considered for the Colonel Power Stakes, another turf sprint at Fair Grounds.