RACING IS BACK

with the Government’s guidelines.”

The BHA has issued an extensive document outlining the guidelines and Middleham trainer Jedd O’Keeffe believes the governing body’s work should stand the sport in good stead.

He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be racing again although there is a small amount of anxiety. We all want it to go well, as we don’t want anything to happen that would put the restart in jeopardy.

“There’s been so much planning that has gone into this and it seems very well thought out.

“It’s been very, very well laid out for us - we received a 33-page protocols document last week that we’ve all been reading and it’s incredibly comprehensive.

“There’s clearly been a huge amount of work that has gone into this and we’ve been well briefed.”

O’Keeffe has four runners on the opening day of action, but newcomer Continental is very much his headline horse having cost owner John Dance £240,000 as a yearling.

Dance has compared the Acclamation filly, who hails from the family of Swiss Lake, with his former Group One star Laurens, so O’Keeffe is eager to see how she shapes up in the second division of the Betway Novice Stakes.

He said: “We really like her, she’s beautifully bred and she’s been working nicely at home.

“Obviously there’s a bit of depth to the race with Tim Easterby’s (Art Power) and James Tate’s (Magical Journey) in there, so it won’t be easy to win first time out.

“Hopefully she will run a nice race, get a good bit of education and we can see where we are.”

Rebecca Menzies is relatively local as she trains near Sedgefield and she has three runners heading to Newcastle.

She reports her horses to be ready for action, despite the long absence of racing in Britain.

While horse racing is the first headline sport to resume business, greyhound racing will get the ball rolling on Monday morning.

The action will restart at Perry Barr.