KEY POINTS:
New Zealand racing bosses are saying the impending financial losses to the industry because of the equine influenza outbreak in Australia could have been a lot worse.
And they are not just talking about the horror scenario of the virus crossing the Tasman.
Sydney racing looks certain to be paralysed for months after EI was found in eight horses at Randwick, the 700-horse centre of New South Wales racing.
With the virus certain to spread further among that horse population, NSW officials are saying there may be no metropolitan race meetings in Sydney for at least two months, possibly longer.
And that means the end of the Sydney spring carnival and a financial disaster for racing across Australia as other states are robbed of their percentages of the turnover usually bet on Sydney tracks.
It will also hit the New Zealand TAB as New South Wales racing is the jewel in the crown of our overseas betting turnover.
Kiwi punters have always felt most comfortable betting on big names like Beadman, Waterhouse and Hawkes.
But while acknowledging there will be losses, NZ Racing Board chief executive Graeme Hansen says the damage could have been a lot worse even without the virus spreading here.
"Firstly, we are just thankful we don't have EI in this country because that wouldn't just affect racing but the whole of New Zealand," he said.
"But containing the losses to our own industry is what we have to work on now and I think that has been handled in remarkable fashion."
While losing New South Wales racing means TAB turnover - and therefore returns to the racing industry - will drop, the impact would have been a lot worse if EI had struck two years ago.
The NZRB has spent an enormous amount of time in the last few years preparing to push our racing product into overseas markets, particularly Australia.
The work done on co-mingling of pools and with overseas broadcasters enabled the NZRB to react quickly.
"Our job is to make sure we get as much of that bottom line back at possible for the racing codes here," said Hansen. "That means providing other Australian product for our punters, but also getting as much of our racing into Australia to fill their void.
"By successfully doing that, the codes here will get the 2.5 per cent international turnover rate and that may ease some of the financial pain.
"Had it not been for measures put in place for internationalisation, then the whole process would have been so much harder," he said.
While reports had been commissioned on how much the EI outbreak will cost NZ racing, it was impossible to come up with a figure. "So many factors are unknown at the moment. How long it will last, how much racing will be lost in Australia?"
