The Cheltenham authorities yesterday described a deferral of its festival to mid-April as a "natural option" if the foot-and-mouth crisis claims the race meeting in two weeks' time.
Cheltenham is already scheduled to host a two-day meeting on April 18th-19th, and the Gold Cup was run a month later than scheduled in 1978 when bad weather forced disruption.
Such a move would have serious repercussions for racing in Ireland as the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse is scheduled for April 16th and the Punchestown festival is set to start on April 24th.
It would also throw travel and ticket arrangements for the estimated 15,000 Irish race fans planning to travel to Cheltenham into turmoil.
The Cheltenham spokesman, Mr Peter McNeile, stressed yesterday that the aim was still to run the festival over three days starting in two weeks' time. He said: "We have no immediate plans to alter the date of the meeting and it is not in imminent danger. No one has told us it will not take place, least of all the Ministry of Agriculture.
"We've always had loose contingency plans anyway because of the threat of the weather and the April dates are a natural option to look at", he added.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said: "The Government is determined to do everything necessary to avoid this spreading to Ireland and everything is being kept under constant review.
"There is a possibility of a request to rugby supporters here not to travel to Cardiff and it's also possible we might make the same request to racegoers planning to go to Cheltenham. We could also ask owners and trainers not to take their horses over."
Paddy Power bookmakers are sceptical about the festival going ahead in a fortnight and believe it's 2/1 about all 20 races being run on schedule. In contrast, it's 2/7 about Cheltenham being disrupted.
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