Fight to save Cheltenham Festival

He said: "I respect where the Irish trainers stand and it would be very sad if they can't come over here.

"Obviously, they are guided by their Ministry of Agriculture, who have closer links to the sport than ours does over here. But we must get the message across that there's no link between holding a race meeting and the physical spreading of this disease."

Meanwhile, the likelihood of racing resuming in just six days' time is decreasing as further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth are reported.

Privately it is acknowledged that, with the number of confirmed cases having more than doubled since the decision to halt racing was taken two days ago, the job of convincing the public that a restart would be justified has become much harder. Enhanced sanitisation measures for all aspects of the industry are expected to be published tomorrow, but if the sport has any chance of resuming next Wednesday, their chiefs need the number of outbreaks to have stablised by Monday.

Even then, trainers who resume racing will face strong opposition from their local communities, especially if farmingorientated.

There have already been reports that Middleham handler Micky Hammond has been pilloried by neighbours for taking a horse to Catterick two days ago.

Rugby is the other sport badly hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The Irish RFU have already cancelled all club matches, Saturday's Six Nations matches between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff has been postponed and there are severe doubts about the Ireland-England fixture in Dublin on 24 March.

But England's clash with Scotland and Italy's game with France on Saturday will go ahead although Scottish officials said they have received calls from farmers urging people not to travel to and from Twickenham.

Allan Hosie, Six Nations chairman, is doing his best to calm fears and doesn't believe the championship will be abandoned.

Similarly, Australian officials said it is too early to suggest there is a a threat to the Lions tour in June, although Australia has strict regulations to protect the country from disease.

Burnley Football Club have confirmed that the club's training ground at Gawthorpe Hall is to be closed because of the crisis as it is on National Trust land.