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Mike De Kock’s super filly Majmu will not contest the G1 J&B Met at Kenilworth on January 31.
Trainer Mike de Kock announced that he will be withdrawing the champion three-year-old from the Cape’s showpiece event despite the lifting of the recent movement restrictions on horses stabled at Randjesfontein.
“Under current AHS conditions it has been recommended that we move horses we intend to race in Cape Town to another centre or to Cape Town as soon as possible in case the movement ban is re-instituted, but I don’t want to prepare Majmu elsewhere,” De Kock reported on his website.
“There are other overriding factors, too. Majmu lost weight when she travelled to the Cape and back for the Fillies Guineas in December and had not put it back on after having had a month to do so.
“Another trip to Cape Town for a major race like the Met will be a bit hard on a young filly like her and could affect her Triple Tiara aspirations.
“We’d rather bide our time, the Highveld feature season is around the corner in Gauteng and it makes sense to keep Majmu stabled here in view of the Triple Tiara series.
“After discussions with Sheikh Hamdan’s racing manager Angus Gold we considered it to be in Majmu’s best interest to take her out of the J&B Met.”
Stablemates Pine Princess has accepted for the G1 Paddock Stakes at Kenilworth on and De Kock plans to start Alboran Sea in the Cape Flying Championship on January 24 following the lifting of the travel restrictions on horses based in Johannesburg.
De Kock and Sean Tarry were among the leading Joburg trainers highly critical of the travel ban.
“There is simply no logic to these new movement protocols and they are not based on science. A few veterinarians are wielding the power, they are like referees in white coats and they’re messing things up for everyone,” De Kock said last week.
Randjesfontein horses were subjected to a 40 day travel ban as it fell within a 30km radius of a recent positive case of African Horse Sickness.
The travel ban was made by the state veterinary authority in order to protect the AHS Controlled Area in the Western Cape in line with the export protocol negotiated with the European Union in 1997.
De Kock, currently with his big team in Dubai, has become increasingly demoralised by the AHS saga and the severe impact it has had on the racing and trading prospects of South African thoroughbreds as well as his own international ambitions.
He said recently that South Africa should “stop pandering” over AHS to the EU and concentrate their efforts on alternative solutions. He said it sent a poor message to the rest of the world when South African trainers cannot travel their own horses around their own country.
Sean Tarry was hit by the restrictions last week when he had to pull Trip To Heaven out of the Diadem Stakes at Kenilworth after being refused a travel permit.
Tarry appealed unsuccessfully against the travel ban. He was told that the special permits issued in 2011/2012 that enabled De Kock’s Igugu and his own stars Pomodoro and The Hangman to travel to Cape Town were given by a provincial state veterinarian who did not have the authority to do so.
Under current regulations every time there is an outbreak in the AHS Controlled Area in South Africa the EU imposes a 24-month ban on equine exports from the country.
It is considered an unreasonable ruling as AHS is a seasonal disease and the culicoides midge that carries the virus cannot survive in the cold of winter.
As a result of outbreaks in the Western Cape earlier this year the current ban on direct travel of horses to the EU will not end until July 2016, provided there is no further outbreak in the AHS Controlled Area.
