In fact, the big baddie is a tiny bugger called Culicoides imicola.

They say the most dangerous creature in the bush is not the lion or elephant but the mosquito, as it spreads malaria.

In the same vein, Culicoides - a biting midge smaller than a mozzie - carries the lethal disease known as African horse sickness. This nasty piece of work is looming large.

When trainer Mike de Kock interrupted the jollity of his Durban July victory interview to declare that South Africa's trading partners "should hang their heads in shame", most television viewers were nonplussed.

Why, in a moment of triumph, would he be talking about the tangential subject of international export?

But De Kock was playing a clever game. His interview will have been watched by top racing people worldwide - so it was a platform from which to send an important message.

Just as South African horse racing is advancing, with its horses winning handsomely on the world stage, it's been hit with onerous new export quarantine rules. The restrictions mean horses now have to spend 140 days in isolation on protracted, multi-stage journeys before being allowed into Europe and the Middle East.

This is a massive disruption to training and puts South African horses at a huge disadvantage in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, where they've raided so memorably.

The hurdles have been hastily erected in the name of protection against African horse sickness.

But there's zilch justification for the panic.

South Africa has worked hard to dismantle archaic export barriers. In addition to inoculation programmes, it has set up a state-of-the art quarantine station at Kenilworth, within the AHS Free Zone in the Cape Town area. Outside this are AHS surveillance zones with close monitoring of equine health and immediate horse travel bans if there are suspected disease outbreaks.

Earlier this year, a case of AHS was reported in Mamre, in the surveillance zone nearest Cape Town.

Under international protocol, this "outbreak" was declared completely over on June 23. But that didn't stop know-it-alls of the North reverting to an outdated import regime - potentially for two long years before it is reviewed.

This is an hysterical overreaction not only because the AHS Free Zone was unaffected but because, even in risk areas, the Culicoides midge dies off completely in cold winter months. Larvae hatch again in summer. No AHS is recorded during winter.

Furthermore, South Africa has developed an internationally certified and acclaimed AHS test that shows quickly and conclusively if a horse is infected.

So, the chances of South Africa's racehorses spreading AHS at the present time would be about nil.

If there is human villainy in all this it's in the form of bossy European Union officials and their controlling, nanny-state mindsets.

Their stupidity could prevent Igugu from amazing the world.

• TURFFONTEIN TOMORROW: PA - 11,14 x 1,4 x 4,5 x 5 x 1,7 x 1 x 2,12,14 (R48)