Carr waiting to return string back into training

PA Sport Reporters
April 17, 2020 3:30 pm

North Yorkshire trainer to judge things in a few weeks.

Ruth Carr will hang fire for another couple of weeks before deciding whether to put her string back into training.

The North Yorkshire trainer opted to turn out her inmates after racing was suspended and Britain put into lockdown at the end of last month due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the Government announcing on Thursday that restrictions will continue until May 7 and the British Horseracing Authority extending the suspension of racing indefinitely, Carr feels it best to wait a little longer before making a move with her inmates.

She said: “Rightly or wrongly, we took the decision to take them all out of training at the end of last month.

“They’re not young horses, they weren’t learning anything so there didn’t seem much point in putting more mileage on them in training.

“They’re having three feeds a day, they’re turned out about 7.30am and brought back in around 4pm. We’ve plenty of land here and they’re pretty active while they’re out in their herds.

“We’ll leave it until probably the beginning of May and see how things are looking before making any decisions.”

The sport’s Resumption of Racing Group – established by the COVID19 Racing Industry Group – has been working with horsemen, racecourses and others on a plan to resume racing behind closed doors as soon as that becomes possible. It has already been outlined that any resumption would be phased and take place on the Flat.

Carr added: “At the moment no one knows when this is going to end, but there’s plenty of work going on behind the scenes to make sure racing is ready to return when we can.

“It would be good to know what sort of races are planned, as there’s probably going to be a lot of demand and plenty of eliminations.

“There are people in much worse situations than me though – at least we have the normality of getting up every day to look after the horses, as they don’t look after themselves.”