Hong Kong launch Fairy protest

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has complained to the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities over Japan`s refusal to allow Fairy King Prawn to defend his Yasuda Kinen title in Tokyo in June.

Fairy King Prawn and three Dubai entrants have been denied permission to race in Japan due to concerns over the spread of foot-and-mouth.

However, the HKJC has attacked the stance on the grounds that the two Japanese horses that raced at the Dubai World Cup Meeting in March were subsequently allowed back into the country.

Fairy King Prawn contested the Dubai Duty Free on the same card in which he was a close second.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the HKJC director of racing, is unhappy at the current situation. 'We are talking double standards here,' he said.

The HKJC have also contacted the chairman of the Asian Racing Conference, Murray Acklin, to enlist his help in having the ban lifted.

Naoyuki Sunaga, the Japan Racing Association`s chief representative in the South Asia Region, said that the government directive banning horses from Britain, Hong Kong and the UAE from entering Japan was issued on March 23rd.

He said: 'The instruction was issued on the eve of the Dubai World Cup. The Japanese horses had already left Japan.

'However, since Japan is a clean country regarding foot-and-mouth, we didn`t believe that those horses posed any risk of infection. That is why they were allowed to return.'