With three point-to-points scheduled for his weekend, one on Saturday, March 27 and two on Sunday, steeplechasing fans will be delighted to know that all three can be viewed from the comfort of youR home via live streaming,

The Green Spring Valley Hounds Point-to-Point will offer a full card of flat and timber races, as well as junior races on Saturday.

Entries for all thee meets can be found at Central Entry Office, and Green Spring Valley will be live-streamed at no charge to the public at noon on shawandowns.com.

Cheshire Point-to-Point will be held Sunday, with the entries from the two recognized races, the Louis Neilson III, to be found at the National Steeplechase Association.

Cheshire will be live streamed Sunday evening, no certain time has been announced yet, at https://steeplechase.tv/.

The Second Warrenton Hunt Point-to-Point is also to be run Sunday, with the first two hurdle races of the season scheduled.

Warrenton will be live streamed beginning at 1:00 pm at warrentonhunt.com.

 

MEANWHILE, racing at Laurel first was cancelled this weekend as a horse at Pimlico has tested positive for the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1).

The horse had been isolated for 72 hours prior to the positive test.

Then later on March 26, Veterinary officials announced that live racing at Laurel Park has been canceled for the next two weeks because of the ongoing equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) situation at the Maryland Jockey Club tracks.

The decision to cancel live racing March 26-28 was made late on March 25 after a horse at Pimlico Race Course tested positive for EHV-1.

That led officials to designate Pimlico as a separate quarantine zone, meaning horses stabled at Pimlico are not able to ship to Laurel to race.

During a March 26 Zoom meeting hosted by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Craig Fravel, TSG Chief Executive Officer of Racing Operations, said racing also is canceled for the following week, April 1-3.

No racing was scheduled for April 4, Easter Sunday.

“This is a stressful situation and we are working our way through it,” Fravel said. “It’s not in our DNA to cancel racing but we live a world where caution is the better part of valor. We continue to appreciate everyone’s cooperation during this time.”

There are currently 26 horses that tested positive for EHV-1, and all of them are being housed in three barns at the former Bowie Training Center.

Because those barns are spaced well apart, each is being treated as a separate quarantine zone.

Another 11 horses are suspected, but not confirmed, of having the virus.

When four barns at Laurel were first quarantined March 8, officials employed a 14-day quarantine and protocol that required two negative test results,Maryland State Veterinarian Dr. Michael Odian said.

Currently, it is now a 21-day quarantine and protocol that calls for only symptomatic horses or those with a temperature of 101.5 degrees or higher to be tested, he said.

Depending on the results of 37 tests scheduled to be run March 26, the earliest the quarantine could be lifted at Laurel is April 17, and at Pimlico, the date is April 12 if there are no further positives.

The release of horses from Bowie will be on a barn-by-barn basis.