Although British racing is setting itself up to resume on Wednesday punters will be lucky to see more than a handful of meetings take place this week.
All eyes at first will be on Lingfield on Wednesday after a seven-day suspension caused by foot and mouth disease.
And while the all-weather Flat card may not be particularly mouthwatering in normal circumstances it is sure to attract attention from action-starved punters provided it gets the go-ahead.
Lingfield's clerk of the course Chris Stickels said yesterday he was hopeful no problems would prevent racing from going ahead.
"As far as I'm aware we pass all the relevant guidelines issued by the Jockey Club and racing should go ahead," he confirmed.
"At the moment there are no problems in the area but we are all just keeping our fingers crossed."
But the two other meetings set for Wednesday at Bangor and Catterick have already been cancelled because of the foot and mouth crisis and a similar fate has befallen all Thursday's meetings at Carlisle, Towcester and Wincanton.
All Irish racing remains postponed until further notice. - PA