Hexham meeting cancelled
Wednesday, 3 October 2001 13:20Friday's National Hunt meeting at Hexham was called off today because of fears about the effectiveness of foot and mouth controls. Hexham racecourse is more than three kilometres away from infected premises. But the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has nonetheless requested that racing should not go ahead.
The executive of the British Horseracing Board is looking into transferring the meeting to another racecourse in the north and will make an announcement as soon as possible.
The foot and mouth epidemic cost the track four fixtures in March and April but racing resumed in the summer with a total of six meetings in May and June thanks to their being no new cases of the disease from the middle of May. But foot and mouth has returned to Northumberland and there have been 31 confirmed cases of the disease in the county since August 23.
Hexham is currently the only racecourse in Britain now unable to race because of foot and mouth.
Filed by John Raftery
