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SCMP Reporter

The blood-borne parasitic disease piroplasmosis occupied many column inches last week when clearly it should never have entered the general racing lexicon.

 That it did so was due to human error, pure and simple.

 Admittedly, it was a clanger of monumental proportions, the kind normally associated with Scottish goalkeepers, and one which must never be repeated, as the gelding Casa Grande was tested twice for piroplasmosis before export to Australia where he was to spend his retirement.

 The first test came back 'suspicious' from England's world-renowned Animal Health Trust and the second a resounding positive.

 The Jockey Club vets had these test results, as did the relevant government vet at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation.

 So between them, three vets cleared Casa Grande for export to Australia while positive to piroplasmosis, a disease which had not been detected in Australia since 1976, can seriously impair racing performance and is potentially fatal.

 The Jockey Club's admirable response, once the blunder had occurred, makes it as certain as it is possible to be that such a mistake could never be repeated.

 An audit of the vets' department was immediately commissioned, the Sha Tin training complex was swept for the ticks which transmit the disease from horse to horse and all horses in training in the Club's riding schools have been blood tested.

 But the way in which the Jockey Club's spin doctors attempted to get the press to present the debacle has left a bitter taste in the mouth and does not sit easily with the Club's need and desire to be seen to be beyond reproach, its worldwide reputation for integrity and also its need for transparency.

 On the evening that the story broke in Hong Kong, the Jockey Club's merchants of spin published a press release under the heading 'Hong Kong Jockey Club confirms that antibodies for equine piroplasmosis found in a retired horse exported to Australia'.

 The release is significant as much for its omissions rather than for what it includes and the best thing that can be said about it is that it was economical with the truth.

 The two most pertinent factors in the whole debacle were both screamingly absent.

 The first of these is the fact that the Jockey Club and government vets were in possession of two tests which showed Casa Grande was positive to piroplasmosis, yet he was still signed off as clear for export.

 The second is that screening tests in both Casa Grande's country of origin, South Africa, and again in his quarantine holding station in America, had failed to detect piroplasmosis for the simple reason that while the disease was present, the tests themselves were not pitched at a sensitive enough level.

 Clearly these two facts show there is clear culpability at this end, that the screening procedures need to be radically upgraded and the independent audit has to establish how two Jockey Club vets can contrive to miss or forget about positive test results that their own department has commissioned.

 It would have been so much better for the Jockey Club's image if the press release had come clean and said exactly what had happened because not only has it come out, it was known about by journalists before the Club's spinners tried to create their own version of events.

 Their release, while omitting the presence of documentary proof that Casa Grande was positive to piroplasmosis but exported all the same, does include a quote from chief vet Keith Watkins that 'no horse in Hong Kong, including Casa Grande, has ever shown specific signs of the disease'.

 The very next paragraph of the press release goes on to state that: 'The fact that this horse [Casa Grande] tested positive for antibodies for equine piroplasmosis was determined by Australian government veterinary authorities as part of their review procedures related to the importation of horses into that country'.

 Strictly speaking both these statements are true.

 But the impression given is neither accurate nor conducive to the resolution of this debacle in such a manner as to ensure it cannot be repeated.

 This impression is that there was no knowledge of Casa Grande testing positive to piroplasmosis prior to export, whereas the Jockey Club's own vets had the test results from the Animal Health Trust in their possession which showed that he was.

 Instead, the impression is that the piroplasmosis was detected in Australia. It was, but it was known about here first.

 To a certain extent, this type of press release overtakes the debacle itself in that the authors have themselves tarnished the Hong Kong Jockey Club's deservedly impeccable image by producing a document which is at best economical with the truth and at worst does nothing to resolve the debacle and make sure it could never happen again.

 Now the Jockey Club has something else to attend to - its own spin doctors.



Spin doctors need ticking off