Racing in Ireland is set to resume at Easter, and an immediate result will be an overlap with the rescheduled Cheltenham Festival.
The Irish Horseracing Authority yesterday announced they are looking to give the domestic sport a definite Easter date for action to resume, just in time for the Powers Gold Label Irish Grand National.
However, Cheltenham's rescheduled dates of April 17th19th mean an overlap with the scheduled four-day Fairyhouse Festival, which is due to be run from April 15th-18th.
The option of moving the last day of Fairyhouse to Saturday, April 14th will be seriously looked at when the IHA Board meet tomorrow, and there is increasing confidence that Fairyhouse, and Punchestown the following week, will go ahead.
The Fairyhouse manager, Dick Sheil, said yesterday: "The further we get from the foot-and-mouth outbreak we had in Armagh the more confident I am about going ahead at Easter. The negative case in Tyrone was a great boost and I have to be hopeful."
Yesterday's IHA statement said they are "hopeful" of racing resuming at Easter and various options will be examined tomorrow "in context of the plans which are being worked on for the possible resumption of racing".
The IHA chief executive, Martin Moore, later added: "It's another 30 days to Easter, and if the country remains free of foot-and-mouth, we have to plan for a resumption of racing. We need to use this time as a window between now and then to get things right."
However, the likelihood remains that any resumption of Irish racing at Easter will just be a consolation for the thousands of Irish fans who hope to see Irish horses take their chances at the Cheltenham Festival if it goes ahead on its new dates.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said last evening: "The bottom line is that the foot-and-mouth crisis is continuing to spiral in Britain and we are advising people not to travel to the races at either Cheltenham or Liverpool."
Currently there is a ban on the movement on the movement of horses within Ireland, except for those under permit. But any granting of a permit for the purposes of racing in Britain is very unlikely with the disease continuing to spread in the UK.
On the home front, however, the Department of Agriculture were more upbeat, and the spokesman said if the island of Ireland continues to be disease-free over the next week the expert group set up by the Minister for Agriculture could consider a relaxation of some sporting restrictions.
However, he stressed: "Any relaxation will be very much a judgement based on the veterinary situation and until such time as the Minister feels it is appropriate. If there is a relaxation in the restrictions on sporting events I would imagine urban events would be first to return."
Easter is the absolute earliest racing will resume in Ireland and although the sport continues in Britain, it is Cheltenham that continues to hog the attention there.
The Festival's new dates were announced by the track's chief executive, Edward Gillespie, but he warned: "We're only too conscious of the continuing foot-and-mouth crisis. We are convinced we can safely conduct a successful race meeting so long as racing continues and the racecourse remains outside an infected area."
However, there are already provisional plans for the 10 championship races to be run elsewhere should foot-and-mouth again claim Cheltenham.
