It has been a relatively quiet weekend for us thanks largely to the EHV vaccines given to most of the yard after they had worked last Wednesday- not imminent runners of course, but pretty much everyone else. I hate giving them the EHV vaccine at this time of year because it does hold us up, albeit for a short while. The vaccine is given with one month apart for the first two doses (usually out of season) with the second one aimed at Spring time so the horses have maxiumum protection throughout Summer, requiring a six monthly top up towards the end of Summer. However, the massive shortage of stocks since last year was not made public until those stocks had run out, leaving trainers who use the vaccine, and studs who have to use it or else run the risk of mares aborting foals in the event of an outbreak - well and truly high and dry. And of course you could bet you life there would be an outbreak, in fact there were many with millions of pounds worth of foals lost. The vaccine requires horses to have a few easy days afterwards, some don't need it, but plenty do so this weekend we played it safe, hence the quiet time. Tomorrow morning will be another matter and I hope they are all as fresh as paint, giving the lads reason to sit extra tight!
With less of a workload than usual I managed to watch the news a few times but frankly find it depressing, a bit boring but fascinating in equal measure. Its hard to believe just how many grown ups there are in politics with school kid mentalities and behaviour more likely to be associated with a playground. The newspapers are no better with scaremongering and misleading quotes many of which are laughable. Even in todays "Racing Post" stable lads Chief executive George McGrath jumped on the "staff are not paid enough bandwagon" - again, by saying "I'm sure we'll still be able to recruit from Europe, but why would you leave a job in France to come and work in England when you get paid more in France and do a 35 hour week?" The fact is, this comment is barely applicable because French staff working in British yards are- and always have been a rarity, the vast majority of non UK staff in racing are from the many other EU countries- not France.