BBA Ireland Receives Surprise Shipment of Masks

On Tuesday, the staff of BBA Ireland received an unexpected but very welcome surprise when a large shipment of face masks arrived from China courtesy of Yuesheng Zhang's Yulong Investments.

Zhang, who is developing a worldwide bloodstock empire, has about 60 horses in Ireland between training yards and studs. Wuhan is where much of the racehorse population in China winters, and is also the city where COVID-19 was first reported. With coronavirus cases dropping in Wuhan and restrictions lifting, Zhang decided to turn his focus to his friends abroad in need.

BBA Ireland agent Michael Donohoe, who has conducted plenty of business on behalf of Yulong in Europe, said, “Last week we got notification that a package was coming from China, and a large shipment of high-quality face masks arrived for all the staff in BBA Ireland.”

There were enough face masks not only to serve the BBA Ireland staff, but to aid healthcare workers as well. And Donohoe said more are reportedly on the way.

“There were far too many just for us, so Eamonn Reilly's wife Vivienne, who is a senior nurse in the Cappagh Hospital in Dublin, was able to give the excess to the hospital,” Donohoe said. “She said the staff there were extremely grateful for this unexpected donation.”

Donohoe described Zhang as “a great friend to BBA Ireland.”

“It was entirely Mr Zhang's initiative and is a wonderful show of solidarity from China,” he said. “Mr. Zhang is, like the rest of us, eagerly awaiting the resumption of the flat season. He looks to have some very nice horses to run for him this year.”

Those nice horses include progressive 3-year-old Leo De Fury (Ire) (Australia {GB}), who was Group 3-placed last year for trainer Jessica Harrington, and the well-traveled 5-year-old Ancient Spirit (Ger) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), who was last seen finishing second in the Listed Trigo S. for the same yard in October. His 2-year-old brigade includes promising progeny of the likes of Lope De Vega (Ire), Kodiac (GB), The Last Lion (Ire) and Footstepsinthesand (GB).

Donohoe pointed out additionally that, while Wuhan was locked down for more than 10 weeks, care of the racehorses wintering there was uninterrupted.

“During the whole lockdown in Wuhan there was exception given to care for the racehorses,” he explained. “The government there understands the importance of welfare for the animals, so training was unaffected. The government gave special permission for feed, bedding, veterinary and veterinary products to be brought to the training establishment there.”