BALLARAT trainer Archie Alexander received some good news on Tuesday but not enough for Racing Victoria stewards to give him the all clear to re-open his stable.

The good news was that his 45 horses were again retested and there was only one horse with strangles. The bad news was that some of his horses had strangles antibodies in their system and because of that, Alexander’s stables will remain in lockdown for at least another week.

Alexander said Racing Victoria vets would take more blood tests of his horses and hopefully he can get the all clear next week.

“There’s no new cases, that’s the good news,” Alexander said. “A few horses have come in contact with the horse which had strangles and it’s showing in their blood tests.

“It means they don’t have strangles, but it puts a tiny question mark against them. It’s like if you come in contact with someone with the flu, it can show up in your blood tests even if you haven’t got the flu.

“The good news is that it’s gone from two horses to one horse with strangles.”

Alexander’s stables have been quarantined since strangles was found in two horses at the end of August.

Alexander said he still harboured hope he could get Lord Fandango into the Caulfield Cup and Wheal Leisure into the Melbourne Cup.

He said he was keeping his team fit through use of the treadmill, swimming and the walker.

“They don’t need a lot of racing,” he said. “Enable hadn’t started for 11 months and came out and won over 2400m the other day in England.”