Feb 21, 2018 3 min read

After a more than one-month layoff because of a potentially deadly contagious virus contracted by a handful of horses in late January, racing returns to The Meadows Friday with a 10-race card, track officials and horsemen confirmed Wednesday. Post time is 5:30 p.m.

While the resumption of racing is good news, the track’s veterinarian, Dr. Richard Balmer, confirmed Wednesday evening that a horse was found dead in its stall Monday. Autopsy results are pending, Balmer said. He added that The Meadows has had three confirmed cases of the Equine Herpes Virus (EHV-1) since last month.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture was notified Jan. 24 that a Standardbred horse at The Meadows had showed clinical signs consistent with the virus Myeloen-cephalopathy and tested positive for EHV-1. Two barns were placed under quarantine and all horses were re-stricted from entering or leaving the track. Five barns of 190 horses have been under quarantine by state veteri-narians after an initial outbreak.

The last race card at The Meadows was contested Jan. 22.

“I have been through a long layoff before when Buffalo had a blizzard,” said Rich Perfido, a trainer at The Meadows who moved here 17 years ago and has been in the business 40 years. “But I’ve never been involved in something like this where horses were quarantined. It hasn’t hit our barn fortunately.

“The layoff has been hurting a lot of stables. It’s a hardship for some. It’s a tough situation, they aren’t racing and you still have to feed them. Me, personally, I’m OK. I fortunately have owners who understand. We’re in for Friday and we’re hoping this moves on.”

Local trainer, Carl Cocciolone of Monessen, said the layoff has “taken its toll on all horsemen.”

He is eager for racing to begin and has one horse entered in Friday’s card.

“We haven’t been able to make any compensation,” he said. “We pretty much have taken it on the chin – owners, drivers, and stable employees.”

In November, The Meadows released its schedule for this year that included 195 race dates. Thus far, the track has lost 17 race cards.

Some industry sources said the horses might be rusty when they return to competition. Another source said the layoff may impact the development of 2-year-old horses, who are just learning how to race.

Perfido disagrees and said the layoff could actually benefit the young horses.

“I think they push 2-year-olds way too hard,” he added. “There are more and more stakes races and the owners want to put them in them. I think it’s a reason why you don’t see more aged horses racing anymore because they are pushed so hard at 2.

“Everybody is in a hurry trying to keep up with the horses in Florida. The weather is bad here and the babies can be pushed too hard.”

According to the industry source, owners typically like to have 2-year-olds ready to compete in June or July and the layoff could cause that schedule to be pushed back to Au-gust and September as they need additional time to work on their gait and on-track education, which isn’t a negative development.

Horses that were not quarantined at The Meadows have been permitted to work out during the past month. Unless a new case of EHV-1 is detected, all horses can be cleared after 28 days without symptoms or 21 days with confirmation of negative test results for the virus.