Green light anticipated for European runners attending Melbourne Spring Carnival

The path for a European challenge to aim at the riches on offer at this year's Melbourne Spring Carnival appeared to be cleared on Thursday, when Racing Australia (RA) revealed that travel exemptions for some international staff had already been approved.

It had been feared that if stable staff were unable to travel, the now traditionally strong challenge from Europe on races such as the Group 1 Melbourne Cup on November 3 and the Cox Plate, for which the William Haggas-trained Addeybb is favourite, would all but vanish, with only horses on a one-way ticket likely to make the journey.

However, RA's acting chief executive Myles Foreman said on Thursday that progress had been made in dealings with the Australian Border Force which would enable staff to travel with their horses.

"They [travel exemptions] are starting to flow through so for all intents and purposes, things are flowing, albeit with an extra couple of hoops to jump through," Foreman told Racing.com.

Addeybb: the 7-1 favourite for the Cox PlateCredit: Matt King

"There's movement and obviously there is no issue with the movement of the horses, but we need the people to go with the horses and we are progressing well at this stage and we've actually had some travel exemptions approved.

"If we continue to get those and meet the right criteria, there is no reason why we cannot proceed on the basis that we've got stable staff able to come out with careful management around the 14 days quarantine."

Stable staff will need to be in Melbourne by the middle of September in order to compete their quarantine period before meeting up with the European horses that are expected to be in the Victorian capital in early October.

At present, a 32-horse capacity plane will take off from Heathrow Airport following St Leger weekend, meaning the horses will come out of quarantine on or just before Caulfield Cup Day (October 17).

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