J&B Met postponed

2003-12-22 16:18

Cape Town - One of the country's premier horse racing events, the J&B Met at Kenilworth, has been postponed until April next year.

This was announced on Monday after a meeting of the regional board of Gold Circle Racing in the Western Cape, veterinarians, the Department of Agriculture, senior trainers and jockey club officials.

In a statement after the meeting, the veterinary surgeons essentially directed the Western Cape to close its racing operations until the middle of February next year. This follows the outbreak of equine flu about two weeks ago.

The first race meeting in the Western Cape was scheduled for February 14. For the remainder of the month, meetings would be confined to weekends only.

This decision was made on the information presently available and assumed that there would be no further set-backs in the recovery and inoculation programme for horses.

The 2004 J&B Met has provisionally been set for April 3, with the date to be finalised once a decision has been taken with the relevant stakeholders, including sponsors.

The race was to have been run on January 31, but was stopped after horse-racing was thrown into disarray following an outbreak of horse flu, first detected at the Milnerton training centre and subsequently spreading to other parts of the country.

The J&B Met carried a total purse of R1 5 million and was considered to be the premier social event of the Cape Town horse-racing calendar.

The Cape season started in December and ended February, carrying about R17 million worth of stakes.

- SAPA