Belmont Park barn placed under quarantine for strangles

The New York Racing Association and the New York State Gaming Commission placed Barn 28 at Belmont Park under a 14-day precautionary quarantine until further notice because of a positive case of strangles in that barn.

Strangles is a contagious bacterial infection that generally affects a horse’s respiratory system and causes symptoms similar to those of strep throat in humans. When properly diagnosed and treated, strangles is not considered a life-threatening infection and horses recover fully.

Barn 28 contains horses trained by George Weaver, Todd Pletcher and Rudy Rodriguez.

2-year-old gelding Mo Curls who is trained by Weaver, was referred to Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center on Friday. He subsequently was tested for a number of potential ailments, and a positive test for strangles was returned on Saturday afternoon. The horse began treatment immediately at Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center.

Following official notification of the positive strangles test, NYRA and the NYSGC implemented standard infectious disease protocols. These include restricting access to the horses in the quarantined barn, establishing a 24-hour security watch, mandating regular temperature checks for the horses in that barn and enacting biosecurity measures for all individuals requiring access to Barn 28.

Overseen by Dr. Sarah Hinchliffe, the director of NYRA's veterinary department, in consultation with the NYSGC, the Barn 28 quarantine is effective immediately.

During the initial quarantine period, these horses will not be permitted to enter races or train among the general horse population. Afebrile-asymptomatic horses stabled in Barn 28 will have isolated training hours on the Belmont Park dirt training track following the close of training for the general horse population at 10:30 a.m.

NYRA will provide updates as appropriate.