Hyderabad Race Club Confirms Four More Horses Test Positive for Glanders
Racehorse owners in Hyderabad said the freeze has continued to strain their budgets but the club has kept its earlier agreement of paying Rs.17,500 per horse.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad Race Club (HRC) has confirmed that four more horses that had been quarantined have tested positive for glanders, a contagious disease that results in high fever and weight loss, taking the total to six. The Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) also reported four positives of its own and cancelled Friday’s race day.
The glanders testing has also spread across Mysore and Calcutta, according to sources, which adds to the uneasy mood around winter racing as clubs wait for lab reports from the National Research Centre on Equines (NRCE).
“It is a protocol that the horses have to be put down once a positive is confirmed,” said N. Kiran Reddy, chief operating officer (COO) of the HRC.
More samples from Hyderabad were sent on Thursday morning after government veterinarians asked the club to resubmit the entire set from the 13 horses kept in quarantine. The COO said the earlier two positives remained the only confirmed cases for Hyderabad, though the infection of four more from the quarantine group have now raised concern. He said the lab would need time before offering clarity. Riders and owners spent the day seeking updates from stable hands who have been kept inside the restricted area.
The situation at the BTC became public minutes after the stewards’ notice stated that Friday’s race day was cancelled for administrative reasons. A meeting between clubs later confirmed that four horses in Bengaluru had tested positive for glanders and that one more sample was being rechecked.
The Calcutta and Mysore clubs have both dispatched samples for examination and said they expect more testing blocks to open in the coming week. Trainers said the flow of reports had become unpredictable and that no one wanted to take chances after the first two confirmations in Hyderabad triggered a chain of retests across states.
Racehorse owners in Hyderabad said the freeze has continued to strain their budgets but the club has kept its earlier agreement of paying Rs.17,500 per horse. Many said fresh uncertainty from Bengaluru had made them brace for a longer wait even if the quarantine horses in Hyderabad are cleared in the next round.
Experts tracking the disease said the repeated movement of samples across the country shows how quickly clubs are trying to contain any spillover. They said the strain detected earlier in Hyderabad was not the zoonotic one and that early removal of symptomatic horses reduced immediate worry inside that centre. They added that the national concern comes from the pace at which each club is now reporting suspicious cases.