Decision to race on in Ireland not taken lightly with so much at stake

It’s 19 years since racing and every other agricultural-based industry was floored by the foot and mouth crisis, but it doesn’t feel that long ago.

That’s because it impacted us all. The livelihoods of those working in racing were decimated, of course, but the manner in which everybody’s way of life was interrupted had just as debilitating an effect.

Take it from a struggling rider who was based with Jonjo O’Neill in Penrith near the epicentre of the outbreak. It was a bleak and harrowing experience that went on for months, and to this day I can see and smell the funeral pyres of livestock being incinerated.