Given the possibility of a mass shutdown in horse racing due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, jockeys will be looking around for something to do in the interim.

Champion jockey Tony McCoy told the Racing Post that he would be heading to Dubai to watch some racing and golf, while Noel Fehily, who heads the conditional jockeys' table, is less enamoured with his lot and will continue to do the same job as any other stable lad for the guv'nor Charlie Mann.

Martin Dwyer said he and other flat jockeys would not suffer so badly at this time of year but thought he might watch Everton play next week while Michael Fenton, an Arsenal fan, said he too would be watching football.

But spare a thought for the on-course bookmakers, who fear they will be without racing for the next eight weeks. A few of the bookies have part-time jobs outside the track but over 100 of them rely totally on racing for their income. Even with no racing they have to pay the Irish Horseracing Authority £77 a fortnight plus 0.3 per cent of last year's turnover.