Sick horse leads to quarantine of Parx Racing backstretch
The backstretch of Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., was placed under quarantine Friday afternoon after a horse stabled there became ill. During the quarantine, horses will be allowed to ship to Parx, but no horses will be allowed to leave the grounds.
A horse trained by Ramon Martin spiked a fever on Tuesday and was sent to the Mid-Atlantic Equine Center in Ringoes, N.J. According to Rodney Belgrave, the center's director of internal medicine, the horse was tested with a nasal swab and was determined to have the non-neurological strain of the equine herpesvirus.
"The horse is clinically doing well and is being kept in our state-of-the-art isolation facility," Belgrave said.
The equine herpesvirus is contagious and can cause respiratory problems in horses. The more-serious neurological strain can sometimes be fatal.
"The horse to this point is not neurological," Belgrave said, "and I don't believe he will become so."
Belgrave said his staff would probably wait "at least a week" and then retest the horse. Belgrave said in his experience, maybe 30 percent of the horse population carry the virus but do not get sick from it.
"It's a very complicated virus," he said.
Martin is stabled in Barn 27 at Parx along with trainers Penny Pearce and Mario Dominguez. There are 38 horses in the barn, none of whom will be allowed to train or race during the quarantine.
The quarantine start date retroactively is Jan. 8, when Martin's horse was moved off the grounds. If no other horses in Barn 27 spike a fever or become ill, the backstretch will reopen Jan. 29. If other horses become sick, a new 21-day quarantine will begin.
The decision to quarantine the backstretch was made after a conference call between Parx management, the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, according to David Osojnak, the director of racing at Parx.
"I believe the right decision was made," Osojnak said. "Everyone involved had input, and it was decided this would be best for our horsemen and all of the horses on the grounds and in the Mid-Atlantic region."
On Friday morning, before the decision to quarantine the Parx backstretch had been made, Osojnak notified racing officials at other tracks in the region of the situation.
At that point, the New York Racing Association, Maryland Jockey Club, and Charles Town closed their stable areas to any horses stabled at Parx.
Aqueduct racing officials scratched horses from their Friday card that are trained by Parx-based horsemen Carlos Guerrero, Michael Moore, Uriah St. Lewis, and Harold Wyner. Laurel scratched a horse trained by Joseph Taylor.
Five horses from Parx shipped to Penn National to race Friday night before the quarantine was put in place. Eric Johnston, the director of racing at Penn National, said those horses will be allowed to race and will then return to Parx.
Parx will continue to race on its normal Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday schedule during the quarantine. The races will be comprised of locally stabled horses and any others whose connections choose to ship in and stay throughout the quarantine.
There have been almost annual outbreaks of the equine herpesvirus in recent years during the winter in the Mid-Atlantic region. Last winter, there were two EHV-1 quarantines at Belmont Park and one at Laurel Park.
Parx has had EHV-1 quarantines in 2013, 2014, and 2016. Four horses died from the illness during the 2016 outbreak.
