WELLINGTON - New Zealand racehorses will be able to breathe easier from next week - at least that's the theory.
Nasal strips - which look like big sticking plasters placed across a horse's nose - become permissible in New Zealand gallops racing from next week.
Phil Tolley, racing control administration manager for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, said the nasal strips are an equine equivalent of strips worn by sportsmen and women in recent times.
"They are a larger version of what rugby players wear across their noses," said Tolley.
"It is said the strips assist a horse with its breathing."
Tolley said the strips are supposed to keep open nasal passages and could help horses with breathing problems.
The nasal strips have been in operation for about two months in New Zealand harness racing and Auckland trainer Mark Purdon is one who has experimented with them.
Purdon said he used a nasal strip on his top 3-year-old pacer Cool Hand Luke in the week they became allowable in Australian harness racing earlier this year.
Cool Hand Luke won a heat of the Victoria Derby that week but Purdon said on his return home the horse had had a wind operation.
Purdon said he remained unsure on the effectiveness of nasal strips.
"I suppose its fair to say I am still experimenting," Purdon said.
But the strips have been far more effective in recent weeks, with several big-race winners using them.
They include star juvenile pacers Hero and Glacier Bay, both of which have won rich races in recent weeks.
"I don't know how much difference it makes but Glacier Bay won a $100,000 race by a nose and if that is all the difference it made I'm rapt," said Glacier Bay's trainer Cran Dalgety.
"I think even the smallest advantage can be important at the top level."
The strips have become more popular in harness racing in the last month, with several trainers now using them and the popularity is expected to increase in coming months.
Tolley said the use of nasal strips in gallops racing will need approval from stipendiary stewards in the same way as blinkers.
"In other words they must get permission from a stipendiary steward to place them on and a stipendiary steward's permission to take them off."
Tolley said the addition or removal of nasal strips would be informed to newspapers in the same way as blinkers are.
* Morrinsville mare Flake's Minnie will wear a nasal strip for the first time in the first race at Alexandra Park tonight.
- NZPA
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