Philly quarantine may go longer

A quarantine at Philadelphia Park in Pennsylvania may be extended 10 days because of uncertainty over whether a filly euthanized Feb. 23 had contracted equine herpesvirus, track officials said Thursday.

Sal Sinatra, Philadelphia Park's director of racing, said that the track is still awaiting spinal-tissue tests results to confirm whether the filly, Kari Oakie, had the highly contagious disease. An initial nasal swab taken from the filly after she was euthanized tested positive for equine herpesvirus, the first finding of the disease at Philadelphia.

Sinatra said the test results should be available Saturday.

Kari Oakie was euthanized after falling during training, with the initial diagnosis a spinal-cord injury.

Philadelphia Park has prohibited horses from entering or leaving the track since Jan. 24 because of an outbreak of herpesvirus in Maryland and an isolated case at Penn National. The track had planned to lift the quarantine March 7, but Sinatra said that if the test results are not "conclusively negative," the quarantine will be extended until March 17.

* Trainer Rodney Jenkins, whose Laurel Park barn has been under a hold order since a euthanized filly tested positive for the equine herpesvirus in January, has been allowed to begin entering his horses Friday for next Wednesday's card. Two of the 36 horses in the barn have not definitively tested negative for equine herpesvirus, and they will be isolated in a barn at Bowie. The two horses, neither of whom show signs of the disease, were to be re-tested Friday.