PHILIP Myerscough feels it is essential racing returns as soon as possible in order to alleviate the downfall of compacting the schedule, both on the racecourse and in sales rings.

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) announced yesterday that racing will return on June 8th, instead of the June 29th, the date put forward by the Government’s phased easing of restrictions plan.

“I think returning on the 29th of June would have been severely disappointing,” Myerscough said this week. “I think that was way too far back. For the industry’s point of view, racing needs to start earlier than that.

“There are already so many horses needing to run. Normally the early horses are out and the mid season horses are ready and then the late horses come out but now everything will be backed up in itself. Racing is the shop front for the bloodstock industry and without it the whole thing collapses in on itself really.

“We have movement of horses for bloodstock matters now and we’re happily allowed to bring mares to stud and continue the breeding business, but to what end result when you can’t have racing?

“The industry is all about turning horses over. Most trainers need to sell and keep stock turning over. One can see it backing up on itself and an accumulating excess stock at the end of the year. The longer they delay, the more problems will arise.”

Perhaps HRI’s biggest challenge over the last few weeks has been to convince government personnel that racing can be conducted safely and this is an area that Myerscough feels the industry can be confident about.

He said: “Racing has proven that it can take place in a safe environment. It’s not a contact sport. It can happen behind closed doors and it can happen sooner rather than later.

“The racetrack seems like a safer place than the training yard where there could be well over 100 or 200 horses in various yards, in a tighter environment. That seems to be working without any problems and so it would seem that racecourses, given they are large spaces and plenty of air, provide a very safe environment.”

Myerscough, a former chairman of Goffs and Tattersalls, thinks all the various companies have done well in the current circumstances but that they will find it very difficult the further racing is pushed back.

One option that seems to have found traction was that put forward by Maurice Burns, who in an interview with the Racing Post, suggested that pushing breeding-stock sales back to January for one year only to take a bit of pressure off the schedule of the yearling season.

Myerscough said: “I thought Maurice’s suggestion of moving the breeding sales into January, like they do at Keeneland, was a very sensible idea. That would give a bit of leeway and a bit of space and that seems to have worked quite successfully in America for many years.”

In the shorter term, Myerscough believes a mixture of online sales crossed with local agents working, as was the case in Australia last month, could be the best system at the resumption stage.

He concluded: “We just need to keep working on the horses and produce them as best as we can. It was nice to get the news about a June 8th return yesterday and having watched the racing in France this week, that has certainly whetted the appetite.”