No immediate solution to mucus issue, says top vet
The call by reigning premier trainer Tony Cruz for the Jockey Club's veterinary department to find a solution to the 'mucus issue' is admirable in its intention but virtually impossible to implement, according to one senior practitioner.
After hot favourite Legionnaire finished a shock last in his race at Sha Tin on Wednesday night, having come off two wins by a combined margin of 101/4 lengths, a subsequent endoscopic examination found a mild presence of mucus.
Veterinary surgeon Dr Chris Riggs said the mucus was an indication of Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD) and it was not necessarily caused, as Cruz had suggested, by the polluted air that plagues Hong Kong.
'It's a persistent problem everywhere in the world,' Riggs said. 'It's just more apparently in Hong Kong because of the level of disclosure here, and much more intense scrutiny than elsewhere. But I can assure you, talking to vets in other major racing centres, they have the same problem.'
Riggs explained that the mucus itself is naturally occurring and necessary for a horse's well being. 'It keeps the lining of the airways moist and protects them, even against bacteria,' he said.
'But sometimes, there may be an irritation caused by mould or dust from the horse's immediate environment - from its feed or bedding - and this can cause the creation of more mucus. It's an allergic-type response.
'Sometimes, when we give the horses an endoscopic examination, the mucus will have a yellow-brown colour, instead of the normal white-grey, and this indicates an infection component is involved [mucopus].'
While Cruz said even a grade one mucus reading in the trachea could cause a horse to perform badly, Riggs said the issue was not black and white. 'We have seen winners who have scoped mucus at grade two level, or even worse, so they've had the mucus and still performed.
'We're certainly not sitting on our backsides and doing nothing about it. But it's one of those things which, despite the huge advances that have been made in recent years, is still not fully understood.
'There are some horses that are persistent offenders, where they'll be treated, the condition will clean up, then suddenly they have it again. And there are plenty of horses who will scope clean one day, then perform poorly and have a positive mucus reading in a post-race scope.
'What we've come to learn, and accept, is that a reading from any scope is just a snapshot in time and not necessarily relevant 24 hours later.'
Riggs assured the racing professionals, and the betting public, that the vets 'are trying very hard' to get on top of the issue and described incidents like Legionnaire's failure, followed by a positive scope, as 'a huge frustration'.
'Unfortunately, there is no magic test,' he said. 'We have to rely on what we can see. We are scoping a very large number of horses and if you look across at the veterinary department each morning you will see a long queue of horses waiting to be scoped.
'When we get these positive readings, we attempt to score them very accurately. There are medications that we can prescribe, but a lot can't be given because they cannot be used within a week of racing,' Riggs added.
