Equine flu: have any lessons been learned from the crisis that rocked racing?

A year has passed and the flu has flown.

There was no racing in Britain on Thursday, February 7, nor on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday that followed. For six slow days the sport came to a halt, stopped in its tracks by a virus and the governing body, which received a diagnosis of equine influenza and prescribed a period of rest.

On Wednesday, February 6, three horses trained by Donald McCain tested positive for a condition that strips the lining off the lungs and airways, leaving a horse open to bacterial secondary infections for a not inconsiderable length of time. At 11.23pm that night all the Thursday British cards were abandoned.