Racing Victoria is now "confident" the federal government will grant special dispensation to the European horses held up in the UAE over the weekend to run at the Caulfield Guineas meeting.
A large shipment of top-flight Cups contenders were stranded on the tarmac in Sharjah because of a cracked windscreen on their plane, delaying their arrival in Australia by 24 hours until Sunday September 30.
That meant that technically they would not come out of their quarantine at Werribee until Sunday October 13, a day after the Guineas meeting, at which some were set to run as they tried to win their way into the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup fields.
Racing Victoria's general manager of racing operations, Paul Bloodworth, is now ''confident'' that the federal government will grant a special dispensation to allow the late-arriving European horses to run at the Caulfield Guineas meeting rather than stay in quarantine an extra day.
Racing Victoria's general manager of racing operations, Paul Bloodworth and Racing Victoria's bio-security staff have spent a frantic 72 hours negotiating and lobbying with the department of agriculture to get a special exemption for a handful of horses to run.
The have been arguing that although they arrived late they were virtually in quarantine all the time they were on the plane in the Middle East and that period could count as part of their 14-day quarantine.
On Wednesday Bloodworth said he was hopeful of a positive outcome.
''All the horses are here now safely and doing really well. There are no signs of any issues. To some extent all's well that ends well.
''They all seem really well in themselves. They all look great. Talking to the guys who travelled with the horses or are looking after them, they are really happy with them.
''TJ Comerford (Aidan O'Brien's representative) said that four of his horses put on weight on the plane. Maybe they were feeding them too much.''
Bloodworth said talks with the government were ''coming along really well".
''I said the other day I was hopeful and confident, I am now feeling confident we will have a good resolution to this problem and I am hopeful it will be earlier than we originally said.
''I am really, really confident that we will have a good outcome and get these horses out and racing on Guineas Day.
''We have provided them with all the information they needed … with the conversations we have been having over the past 24 hours it looks as though we will get a positive outcome out of it.
''If you count the days from Sunday 30 to October 13 that's 14 days. I think its fair to say that the government are becoming more comfortable that all the biosecurity requirements are going to be met, and that's why we are feeling more confident of a good outcome.''
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