Equine flu hits racing in Japan

Racing in Japan this weekend has been cancelled due to an outbreak of equine flu.

Sapporo, Niigata and Kokura were all due to stage fixtures but a statement on www.japanracing.jp confirmed the meetings had been called of to “avoid increase of secondary infection”.

It read: “Symptoms of equine influenza were found from horses stabled at JRA facilities. Inspection is being conducted to the horses entered for the races scheduled for this weekend and 29 out of 163 samples was found positive with one horse developing fever.”