Racing farms under attack, as the ‘incredible work’ save horses emerges

5:35pm UPDATE:

Racing farms in Victoria’s northeast are under direct threat from out-of-control bushfires, with flames sweeping across the Longwood region as stories emerge about the heroic efforts from the racing industry to rescue hundreds of horses.

Firefighters continue to battle wild fires near Longwood in North-East Victoria in order to keep properties safe and incredibly, hundreds of horses have been saved from threatened farms due to the good will of trainers and nearby farms.

Leneva Park’s Mick Sharkie told Betsy the fire was ‘’ripping through’’ the farm, while saying the work of the industry to help each other was ‘unbelievable’’

‘’It’s hit us a few times today, and I just had one of the CFA guys in a loop … and it’s ripping through our joint again right now,’ he said

‘’It’s just anything that hasn’t burned, it’s catching [fire]. It’s just going mental.

‘’They’re doing their best, but these guys, they are so stretched. They are so stretched.

‘’They’re trying hard for us, but we really don’t know what it’s going to look like when it’s done.

”But we’ve got all the people and all the horses safe.’’

Sharkie said the work of a number of racing people to help each other ‘’needs to be shouted from the rooftops’’

‘’The Northeast Equine Group, and what people are doing in that area, moving horses. Like, the Corsten boys are running around, running floats.

‘’There are just so many people running floats.

‘’Everyone’s got to Blue Gum and got all the horses out. Blue Gum’s got more horses than anybody around there, I would have thought, apart from Lindsay Park. And just the mobilisation of goodwill to help is just incredible.

‘’Honestly, it needs to be to be shouted from the rooftops what people are doing up there.’’

Sharkie said the volatile conditions and strong winds are making life incredibly difficult. He said it could get worse as the southerly cool change hits the area around 9pm.

‘’Peter Ford, he’s a bloodstock agent, he’s in Euroa Mansfield Road in Gooram, and they were worried about a suddenly change because it’s going to take the fire through that Gooram Valley and there’s a number of properties there.’’

EARLIER:

Harrowing details of racing property staff “running for their lives” and saving horses from bushfires have emerged, as businesses worked through the night.

A “catastrophic fire day” has been predicted by Emergency Services on Friday, who confirmed on Thursday night that at the town of Longwood which has a number of prominent racing and breeding farms nearby. More than 400 firefighters are tackling a bushfire that has so far burnt through 27,000 hectares and prompted many ‘Leave Now’ emergency warnings. Parts of the Hume Freeway have been closed.

A number of farms throughout affected by the Longwood fires are believed to have removed the last of their horses in the early hours of Friday morning.

It is believed some have suffered structural damage to part of their farms, but all staff and animals are safe.

Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch said on Friday morning that fires today would be “uncontrollable, unpredictable and very fast moving”.

“This morning we’ve had 40 fires already in the landscape – 30 of those remain active,” he said, adding there had been both commercial and property loses in the Longwood fire.

Mick Sharkie, Leneva Park’s General Manager & Bloodstock Manager, told Betsy on Friday morning how his team went from speaking to a television crew to “running for their lives”.

“All the people are safe and we got all the horses off last night,” Sharkie said, who had to remove 110 horses from Leneva Park.

“We went from being safe with film crews, being told by police and CFA that they’re safe to film on us, to people running for their lives, within minutes.”

Sharkie said a sudden change of wind caused the incredibly dangerous scenario.

“The wind changed, they weren’t expecting it … and the fire just came raging … it went through us,” he said.

“All the people are OK, which is the main thing, that’s the main thing. They’re all okay, and the horses are all okay.”

Sharkie said staff were forced to protect their homes and stables as the fire threatened.

“Essentially the staff put it out as the embers were hitting, like, two of the houses caught on fire and staff put it out,” he said.

“And they were running around just protecting the infrastructure, the main infrastructure.”

“We’ve copped it. I think the homes are still there, and the stable complex is still there. But, you know, we’ve got massive amounts of fencing that’s damaged or gone.”

Sharkie said all nearby properties, that include Michael Christian and Siobhan Miller’s Longwood Farm and Lindsay Park, were working through the night to remove the last of their horses.

Will Hayes told SEN on Friday morning that the CFA had to protect their property during the early hours of Friday.

“Last night we were hit directly – CFA are heroes. All horses are okay – they’ve been fed, have water & all necessary veterinary treatments been given. Bunkering down for another scary day & thinking of everyone in the community!”

Sharkie said many of the local farms have been working together.

“People have been amazing. Some of those studs in Seymour, they just got moving last night and were going in and out into some pretty dicey conditions to get, get people’s horses out,” he said.

“From what I can gather, everyone nearby seems to be okay, but some have had some damage, but I think everyone got their horses out in time and their people off property in time.”

“I think most people, when it was going bad yesterday afternoon, I think a lot of people took action and got them out. We were probably caught out a bit because the information we had was that we were okay because it was on the other side of the hill and then when the wind did what it did and they didn’t forecast it and then that was it.”

He said attention now turns to getting enough feed off the property to the locations where their stock have being taken.

“Staff are in there now getting all the feed we can off the property, so we can support the farms that have taken our stock, because that’s the other thing, they’re all going to be short,” he said.

“So we’re going in to get what we can out to help them.”

Sharkie also said that it was important those seeking to help him and other farms today remain safe and out of harm’s way with hot temperatures and wild winds predicted.

“The biggest thing, everyone’s reaching out and saying, ‘how can we help?’ And the biggest thing is, especially today, people, just cool your jets,” he said.

“Racing Victoria is trying to coordinate support. Just don’t put any, nobody put themselves in danger. It’s kind of under control as far as urgent horse movement is concerned. But the last thing you want is people going up there with good intentions and finding themselves in trouble.”

Racing Victoria asked trainers to contact them late on Thursday should they be able to help evacuate horses.

“If trainers have a truck available to assist in relocating horses from affected bushfire areas if required they are asked to email equinewelfare@racingvictoria.net.au,” RV said.

“Please include location, horse capacity, truck availability & your phone number when emailing. Remember to only enter affected bushfire areas when instructed by emergency services that it’s safe to do so.”