Racing is taking the right course of action

Even before the British Horseracing Board and Jockey Club put in place stringent guidelines that Lingfield's visitors will sample today, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food were happy for racing to continue.

Such is the level of disinfection now routine at all operative training yards and racecourses that MAFF suggested that racing could be staged even in infected areas.

But the BHB and Jockey Club voluntarily ruled against racing in the vicinity of confirmed outbreaks, a stance reiterated following talks with the National Farmers' Union last night. Racing also draws a 10km no-go zone in such cases, whereas MAFF is content with a mere three km.

It tends to be forgotten that racing is one of Britain's largest industries, employing more than 60,000 people. It provides over £50 million a year in tax revenue. While racing stands idle it sustains substantial economic damage. Its chiefs have a responsibility not to devastate one industry out of sentiment for another.

Some tracks and trainers have opted out of racing's resumption because of sympathy for their local farming community. Their number may increase after NFU president Ben Gill yesterday appealed to the sport to hold off for another week.

But entries for Sandown on Friday and plans for Cheltenham indicate many who vocally opposed the re-launch have now changed their mind, faced with the prospect of racing resuming with or without them. Knee-jerk reactions have been straightened out by fact.

On Channel 4 Racing's Morning Line programme last Saturday, Jockey Club chief veterinary adviser Peter Webbon outlined the outlandish chain of events that would need to take place, without interruption, for racing to somehow spread foot-and-mouth disease.

A horse would have to step on dung from infected livestock, retain it on its hoof from stable to racecourse, where it would then have to lose it and another horse pick it up. It must then remain on this horse's hoof, not just until returning to its yard, but until the same, mightily persistent piece of dung is left where it could infect susceptible animals.

This miraculous scenario is now broken in four places by racing's sanitisation procedures. Stringent disinfection has been incorporated into daily training life. Horses' hoofs are cleaned and disinfected on arrival and departure both at their yard and track. Their transport has been steam-cleaned and wheels disinfected. No bedding or feed and minimal tack make the journey.

Certificates of compliance, signed by the trainer, must be produced on arrival at a racecourse to veterinary officers, who then supervise further disinfectant procedures.

Jockey Club inspectors are carrying out random spot-checks of training yards to ensure the procedures are undertaken. Failure means the horses are grounded; at a racecourse, non-compliance means you are sent home. Disciplinary action follows.

At Lingfield yesterday, the eerie sight of men dressed in bright yellow spacesuits, spraying tyres and supervising the wheel baths on entry and exit, were evident. All vehicles at all courses must undergo these measures, with lorries subject to a power-wash on leaving the course. Pedestrians must walk through disinfectant-soaked pads to gain entry.

Without these measures, a postman poses as much of a threat of spreading the disease as a trainer, the school-run Volvo as much as a horsebox. People congregate in all walks of daily life - at supermarkets, hospitals, football matches.

At these venues disinfectant procedure is rare or non-existent. It is paradoxical so much concern should focus on racing when it offers the sole example of a body taking universal sanitisation action against the disease.

Racing is not being irresponsible by resuming. In fact, Lingfield is arguably the safest place you could possibly go today.