Melody Belle with trainer Jamie Richards (Image: Trish Dunell)
Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis is hopeful horse traffic between New Zealand and Australia could be reopened some time this month, paving the way for full New Zealand participation in the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
Ellis, who has been awarded the Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours, said he had as many as 12 horses he intended campaigning in Melbourne this spring and was hopeful of some good news soon after the COVID-19-enforced shutdown of borders.
"We're hopeful that New Zealand and Australia can become a bubble and we can travel," Ellis told RSN927.
"It looks like the virus is completely under control in New Zealand. I'd say next week we'll go to level one (restrictions) and we'll be back to normal very shortly and we're hopeful, in the month of June, we'll start travelling to Australia.
"That hasn't been confirmed but for the sake of racing, we need it to happen and we're optimistic that it will.
"We've got Probabeel and Melody Belle in work in Sydney already and just waiting another 10 days for Te Akau Shark.
"We are just waiting to see when we can transfer horses because we definitely intend taking a dozen horses to Melbourne for the Spring Carnival.
"We're going to nominate five for the Cox Plate. We've got a very good Savabeel gelding called Prise De Fer; we've got a good Fastnet Rock mare Avantage - and she won Group 1s this season from 1200m to 2000m - and we've got Te Akau Shark, Melody Belle and Probabeel."
New Zealand racing is set for a July 3 return after an extended shutdown and Ellis said that despite some damage having been done, he was hopeful of a return to near-normal as soon as possible.
"Having to close racing down was a big disappointment but it couldn't have happened at a better time of the year," he said. "Most of our horses would have been out spelling at that time anyway - they are all back in work now.
"We are very excited about the spring. There might be some Stakes money reductions, but I think they will be temporary.
"It was certainly a big disappointment for our TAB when racing was brought to a standstill.
"They had all the staff on but no races to bet on and we were very envious that racing could continue in Australia and we were lucky we had three good horses (Te Akau Shark, Melody Belle and Probabeel) to race in those races."
Ellis is also in favour of a one-off shift of the Caulfield Cup to a late-November date.
"Personally, I hope that they do change the Caulfield Cup for the reason for the (AFL) football," he said.
"It's only for one year. It's such a brilliant carnival. I hope it doesn't change long-term."