Horse racing chiefs await Prime Minister’s speech before revealing blueprint for return

HORSE racing officials hope to confirm plans for the sport’s resumption once Boris Johnson has addressed the nation on Sunday night.

They’re continuing to refine their blueprint for behind closed doors racing after Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested that the return of racing – and also Premier League football – was “doable”.

The Cabinet minister’s intervention is significant because his Suffolk constituency is home to Newmarket, the country’s pre-eminent training centre.

Later Dominic Raab, the First Secretary of State and Prime Minister’s de facto deputy, said the return of top flight football would “lift the spirits of the nation” – further evidence that the Government, in a subtle shift, wants to embrace the power of sport on Britain’s long road back to social and economic recovery.

Even though the British Horseracing Authority intend to issue a tentative fixture list tomorrow to cover the first seven days of racing’s potential resumption, and enable trainers prepare horses accordingly, they have, however, distanced themselves from reports that meetings could be staged as early as May 15.

They say that they want to digest the Prime Minister’s speech – and study the Government’s recommendations for sport – before finalising their intentions.

“We are continuing to work through the plan for a resumption at the earliest opportunity,” said BHA chief operating officer Richard Wayman last night. “That plan has gone on for several weeks so, as you can expect, are at a pretty advanced stage.

“We are all waiting, not just the BHA and British racing but the whole country, to hear from the Prime Minister on Sunday whether there is any lifting of the lockdown restrictions and any timetable for the return of sport, including racing.”

He confirmed that racing will be ready to react and respond to any conditions that the Government choose to impose on the sport.

And Wayman said it was also important that the sport proceeded with precaution. “One of the worst things that could happen for racing, or for sport, is for racing, or the sport, to resume and then, a few weeks later, to stop because we haven’t got it right,” he stressed.

Officials from the BHA and other bodies, like the Professional Jockeys Association, have been working round-the-clock to come up with a plan that also satisfies the Government’s public health tests on social distancing and the resting of participants for Covid-19.

They include measures which implemented in Ireland, like separate entrances and exits to the weighing room and jockeys not having access to shower and sauna facilities, before the sport was shut down there.

Hotels at the courses earmarked to stage racing, Newcastle and Lingfield, would be utilised as part of the quarantine strategy.

Ministers were said to be receptive to the “pragmatic” approach taken by the BHA, and others, during a meeting with Nigel Huddleston, the Sports Minister, last week.

Meanwhile Mr Hancock’s comments came in the contest of calls to allow Premier League football to start next month in order to finish the 2019-20 season.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, I’m absolutely open to that. And horse racing too. And, I know that both the Premier League and racing are working on how this might be doable in a safe way. But that safety has to be paramount.”

Racing last took place in Britain on March 17 at Wetherby.