Dry weather and dusty training grounds causing increase in dirty scopes

Several British yards have been hit by a rise in dirty scopes which have led to a series of late non-runners.

Alenquer, who should have run in the Juddmonte International, was one of four horses declared a non-runner across York's Ebor festival due to a bad scope.

Far Shot was the other York absentee trained in Newmarket, with his trainers John and Thady Gosden also forced to withdraw horses due to dirty scopes from Sandown and Lingfield on Saturday.

Newmarket trainers Sir Mark Prescott and Matt Crawley were also forced to withdraw runners because of the same problem at the weekend.

In contrast, just one horse was taken out in the five days of Royal Ascot and the same number at Glorious Goodwood due to a bad scope.

Gosden snr said: "One filly had some mucus and the other had a runny nose from Saturday's intended runners. There’s something on some of them at the moment but it’s around the country I gather, not just Newmarket.”

James Tate: 'The dirty scopes going around at the moment are just colds'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Trainer James Tate, who is a qualified vet and agreed cases were on the rise, said: "The dirty scopes going around at the moment are just colds, which is five days on antibiotics and carry on.

"We scope all our horses after every work and two days before they are due to run, in other words before we declare them. There’s been a slight rise in cases and I’ve had to pull the odd one out just lately.

"Thankfully, they're horses who have had options the following week, so we’ve been able to redirect them. I’d be surprised if any that have been taken out this week are not back in business soon."

Alenquer was scratched from the International shortly after he was declared when the result of his scope was found to be unsatisfactory.

Armando Duarte, racing manager to Alenquer's owners MM Stables, believed his absence was caused by the dry weather. Training centres have endured the driest July on record and there has been no rain in Newmarket in August. That has led to dusty walking grounds, gallops and canters.

Duarte said: "I haven’t seen the scope myself but my opinion is the high levels of dust and pollen around at the moment hasn't helped.

"Wherever you go, whether it's stables, walking grounds or gallops, there's always dust in the air. I don’t think it’s a virus leading to dirty scopes, I think it's because it's so dry they're going down with this.”

Not all yards are suffering, however, and Charlie Fellowes said: “We’ve scoped ours a lot recently but, touch wood, we’ve been pretty good. Hopefully, we stay healthy with a busy autumn period coming up.”

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