By MIKE DILLON
Trevor McKee was not joking when he said during a television interview on Saturday that Sunline may not be going to Dubai.
McKee is worried about England's foot and mouth disease outbreak.
Horses are unaffected by the disease, but are carriers and McKee does not want to risk getting to Dubai and have Sunline locked up in quarantine there for an indefinite period.
Most of the European horses scheduled to compete in the Dubai World Cup meeting on March 24 are already in Dubai and the remainder will not be going after an animal export ban was placed on England.
"How do we yet know the English horses already there are not carriers," said McKee when he arrived back from Sydney after watching Sunline walk around Warwick Farm on Saturday to win the $A150,000 Apollo Stakes.
"I want confirmation I can get Sunline in and get out again.
"I will be asking some questions. The last thing we want is to find an English horse has carried the disease there and that an export ban is placed on all animals out of Dubai."
Reassuring will be that the quarantine restrictions into Dubai since England's outbreak will have been extremely tough.
Foot and mouth affects cloven-hooved animals and Dubai's prized possessions are its camels, which are worth more than the world champion Godolphin stable's best thoroughbreds.
"There are 2000 camels in Dubai and they sure won't want them getting foot and mouth," said McKee.
If you thought Sunline had a stroll in the park to win on Saturday you are right on the money, but that was just what the McKee stable wanted.
"It did the job and with the trip there and back it will bring her on tremendously," said McKee.
"She pulled up enormously well, as you'd expect, and she was very bright this morning."
The opposition in Saturday's weight-for-age feature wasn't weak but once Sunline assumed her customary pacemaker's role the result was never in doubt.
Melbourne-based New Zealand jockey Greg Childs admitted easing up 150m from the finish but Sunline still held out second-placed Celestial Choir by two lengths, with a similar distance to Referral third.
"She could have won by half a dozen lengths if need be," McKee said.
"We never take anything for granted with her, but she is just the thorough professional. Every race she goes out there and gets the job done."
The Warwick Farm crowd treated the group two race more like a farewell parade, with some doubts over whether Sunline will return to Sydney.
McKee said he couldn't answer that question but said Melbourne in the spring was certainly on his mind.
"Dubai is our goal at the moment. If she can win there it will be the ultimate," he said.
"But down the track, I'd love to see her try to win a third Cox Plate.
"We might come here in the spring to prepare for that or this might be her last run in Sydney.
"She has to come back to Australia (after Dubai) for quarantine so depending on how things go, she could race in Sydney over Easter.
Sunline became the second horse to win the Apollo Stakes twice and took her record to eight wins from eight starts over 1400m and it was her 25th win from 33 career starts, for $NZ9.5 million in stakes.
The champion will be flown home today and will leave for Dubai on Sunday for the $US2 million Dubai Duty Free.
Racing: Disease doubts over Sunline's Dubai assault
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.