COMMENT: Why we must back veterinarian advice on Melbourne Cup runners

Anyone suggesting Melbourne Cup vetting is ‘ridiculous’ – Jan Brueghel’s trainer Aidan O’Brien included – need only type three words into Google.

How quickly we forget.

What if Jan Brueghel, withdrawn on Tuesday from the Melbourne Cup on independent vet advice, actually raced at Flemington in the race that stops a nation and sustained a catastrophic injury?

Trainer Aidan O’Brien would be devastated.

Owner Coolmore would echo the sentiment.

The tragedy would be front and back page news around Australia and the racing world.

Who won the Melbourne Cup? Who cares?

Television and radio news would lead with ‘Cup death’ bulletins.

Cue the anti-racing brigade.

• PUNT LIKE A PRO: Become a Racenet iQ member and get expert tips – with fully transparent return on investment statistics – from Racenet’s team of professional punters at our Pro Tips section. SUBSCRIBE NOW!

The reality is this.

For most people the Melbourne Cup is the only race in Australia.

What happens in the Melbourne Cup then, in theory, happens in racing generally.

Seven horses died at Flemington on the first Tuesday in November in as many years to 2020 when the O’Brien-trained Anthony Van Dyck snapped a fetlock in the straight.

Two other Cup hopefuls in 2020, Wichita (O’Brien) and Involved (Ciaron Maher/Australian Bloodstock) sustained leg fractures in training at Werribee.

Two years earlier, another O’Brien runner, The Cliffsofmoher, broke a shoulder in the Cup and was humanely euthanised on the track behind the dreaded green screen.

Verema (2013), Admire Rakti (2014), Araldo* (2014) and the great Red Caudeaux (2015) all endured the same fate — due to the extent of respective injuries.

Action had to be taken.

"We thought he was a massive handicap blot!"

Aidan O'Brien tells @MCYeeehaaa his frustrations over Jan Brueghel's Melbourne Cup withdrawal... pic.twitter.com/waUs2pMzHg

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 29, 2024

• Racing Victoria vets rule Jan Brueghel out of 2024 Melbourne Cup

Racing Victoria and Victoria Racing Club acted swiftly, as racing and society demanded.

A review into the death of Anthony Van Dyck triggered a suite of recommendations and stringent Melbourne Cup Safety Protocols.

The process has been reviewed and tinkered with annually, with feedback from industry participants to ensure a system fit for purpose.

The once compulsory bone scans — scintigraphy — became an upon request procedure to reduce the effect of sedatives on the horses.

Victoria has been a global leader in the equine safety space.

New South Wales has since introduced a standing CT machine.

The UK’s first scanner was installed last year.

The technology is available in Germany and France.

There isn’t currently a suitable standing CT scanner in Ireland or Japan.

Something for the racing powerhouses to consider, maybe?

Racing Victoria Stewards, acting on specialist veterinary advice, have today withdrawn Jan Brueghel from the entries for the 2024 Lexus Melbourne Cup (3200m) to be run at Flemington next Tuesday, 5 November. https://t.co/oeZtHcaEtN

— RVStewards (@RVStewards) October 28, 2024

• ‘It’s ridiculous but that’s the way it is’: Aidan O’Brien on Jan Brueghel ban

Yes, myriad scans, trot ups and vet checks, pre- and post-quarantine, and again before the Cup, ruffled feathers home and abroad but safety and perception matters more.

The suggestion northern hemisphere three-year-olds like Jan Brueghel are disadvantaged by the protocols, scan differently due to developing bone structures and like, is merely that – a suggestion.

Since protocols were introduced in 2021 there has not been an overrepresentation of European three-year-olds failed by the independent imaging panel based on scans.

Sayedaty Sadaty and Birdman completed the process this spring in Melbourne and competed.

State Of Rest, trained by dual Melbourne Cup-winner Joseph O’Brien, cleared the protocols in 2021 and went on to win the Cox Plate.

The past three Cups, since protocols were introduced, have thankfully been run without a catastrophic incident — knock on wood.

Is the vetting completely responsible, of course not, but it hasn’t hurt the situation either.

Anyone suggesting Cup vetting is “ridiculous”, O’Brien included, need only type ‘Melbourne Cup deaths’ into Google.

What would be ridiculous is doing nothing at all.

* Araldo shattered a hind pastern in a freak accident, frightened by a fan waving an Australian flag close to the fence line as the Melbourne Cup runners returned to the mounting yard.

Originally published as COMMENT: Why we must back veterinarian advice on Melbourne Cup runners