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Prominent owner to hold new acquisitions until Racing Victoria's Melbourne Cup report

Prominent owner Ozzie Kheir has told Racing.com he will wait until the release of Racing Victoria's Melbourne Cup report recommendations before committing to buying overseas horses for the spring.

The report, which has been completed by RV and the Victoria Racing Club and is due for release shortly, is likely to recommend new requirements horses must meet before being allowed to compete in the spring.

Kheir said he would be an interested reader of the report's findings and recommendations when it is released.

He famously purchased Sir Dragonet (Camelot) in the lead-up to last year's Spring Carnival and he went on to win this season's Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m). 

"We are keeping our powder dry at the moment," Kheir said when asked if he'd purchased any horses from abroad.

"We've got a couple of horses on the radar but until we see the report, it's hard to progress with anything because we don't know what it involves.

"We are all just waiting for the report."

Kheir said he is particularly interested to see the report's recommendations relating to scanning of international horses.

He said deals had the potential to become more complicated if there is a requirement for horses to pass scans both in Australia and overseas before being allowed to run here.

"If you get your horse scanned overseas and the vets overseas tell you the horse is fine and you get a report from them, is that sufficient?" he said.

"Or is it still going to be based on someone's opinion here? You've flown the horse here, paid for it and you get told you can't run."