RACING HOPES TO CONVINCE DOUBTERS

British racing`s rulers are hoping to persuade doubters that the sport can resume next week.

Jockey Club public relations officer John Maxse today emphasised that, despite the ever-growing list of suspected foot-and-mouth cases in Britain, a resumption of racing would pose a 'negligible' threat to farming.

The decision to abandon racing for the next seven days was taken on Tuesday by the British Horseracing Board after growing pressure, including from many trainers.

But Maxse told Sky Sports: 'We have every intention of resuming on March 7th. The difficulty is that there`s a lot of concern about the safety of moving horses about.

'With increased safety and codes of practice, we hope that we can resume next Wednesday.

'The BHB will monitor the situation. One of the key reasons for having a break now was to give us the best possible chance of staging the Cheltenham Festival.

'There are contingency plans in place any way, they are not discussed prior to the meeting as we will be doing everything possible to ensure that the meeting goes ahead as planned.

'We have to go out and convince the racing and farming communities that moving horses about is safe, we understand the pressure upon trainers and racecourses from their local communities.

'There is no legal restriction on the movement of horses, and we hope that with all the restrictions and codes of practice that we hope to have implemented, the risk of moving racehorses will be negligible.'

Cheltenham`s managing director Edward Gillespie was keeping a similarly upbeat tone about the chances of the meeting going ahead.

'At the moment the Festival is on because racing starts again next week,' he said.

'We are going full steam ahead, not just with our planning for the meeting but to make sure that all the arrangements are in place to make sure that we minimalise any risk that a race-meeting would hold to the spread of this terrible disease.

'We will do everything we can tohelp the meeting go ahead.

'If a small trainer doesn`t want to use a horsebox that he thinks may have been used recently by cattle, we will help with that, we will send a horsebox that will provide a sterile environment.

'We will talk with the Irish - we are looking at aeroplanes to provide a sterile way of transporting horses.

'It will be a very sad day when an Irish horse can`t get to Cheltenham.'

Gillespie also confirmed that a contingency plan was in place for the meeting to be switched to April.

'It`s no secret that we have a contingency plan, we`ve had one for 25 years,' he added.

'We race on two days in April (the 18th and 19th) and we could add a day to that and race on the Tuesday as well.

'If we can work positively there will be a will and an understanding that if we do race it will be the right thing to do.'