KEY POINTS:
The race that stops Australia may well be stopped itself by a sneeze from a horse in Japan.
Equine influenza has officially shut down Australian racing until at least Tuesday.
But the possibility is far from remote that the industry could be out of action for a lot longer - long enough to affect one of the country's greatest institutions, the Melbourne Cup.
Already Melbourne's leading trainer David Hayes has suggested it may need to be put back by a month. For many trainers and their horses, it will make little difference if the virus is contained or eradicated between now and the first Tuesday in November.
Already some horses will have had their intricately planned campaigns affected by missing yesterday's racing. If they were to miss one or two more runs during the next month, the most lucrative and prestigious period of the racing year would be lost to them.
Tabcorp, which run totalisator betting in Victoria, NSW and the ACT, says the cancellation of yesterday's meetings alone will cost it A$70 million ($78.03 million) in turnover. If racing was halted for a month, it would result in a A$1 billion loss in turnover.
Any further cancellation would have a significant impact on state government revenues.
But the biggest blow would be the loss of Australia's world-famous horse race which has been run every year since 1861.
Already the participation of the strongest ever contingent of overseas horses is in doubt, especially those from Japan where this latest bout of equine influenza is believed to have emerged.
Japan, where racing has been shut down by horse flu for the past two weeks, supplied the first two past the post in last year's cup and both horses, Delta Blues and Pop Rock were due to run again.
Other entries had been received from Ireland, England, France, the US, Canada and Hong Kong.
The flu outbreak already has had a strong negative effect on the Australian bloodstock industry.
The first signs of the virus appeared last week in a stallion who had arrived in Australia from Ireland. The horse is believed to be Encosta De Lago, an Australian-bred stallion who is due to be mated with triple Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva.
At the least, that mating will be delayed for a month.
At worst the outbreak will mean Australia's hard won place among the world's leading racing nations will have suffered the greatest blow in its history.
- AAP
