Smaller trainers on both sides of Ireland's border hoping to ride out the storm

For trainers like Stamullen-based John McConnell, racing's shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic comes at a particularly bad time for an expanding operation getting increasingly good results, especially in the last couple of years.

Having saddled 15 winners on the Flat in Ireland last year, McConnell had already made a good start to 2020 with five winners on the Polytrack at Dundalk.

His dual-purpose yard has also been doing well over jumps, with 11 wins in Ireland with his string of mostly summer jumpers.

McConnell believes he will be okay, as long as there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

He said: "At the moment we are okay and still busy. A couple of our owners have decided to give horses a break, but we had others coming in anyway, so it has not affected us too much at the minute. But obviously if it drags on with no end that's a different matter.

"I think the situation regarding racing will be revisited in a few weeks' time and then we'll see where we are. If we can see a potential end to it, then I think we'll be okay, but if it's ongoing we might have to take out more horses, but we're keeping things ticking over. We haven't been asking horses to do a whole lot as yet, but they will be ready when the time comes for us to start back."

'It is a blow'

Staffing has not been an issue yet. McConnell added: "Most of our people are still coming in. Some people with elderly relations and similar issues have decided not to come in, and that's fine. At the moment, we haven't had to look at the government's Covid-19 scheme for employers, although I would think that some riders have had a look at that with there being no races for them to ride in. We're relatively unscathed so far, but again, it's the unknown aspect of it that is the worry and how long this could go on for."

A good portion of McConnell's success in recent times has come with his cross-channel raids. He saddled three Flat winners in Britain last year and has had three winners over jumps this season, the most notable feat coming with a double at Musselburgh on New Years' Day.

He said: "We do like to send horses across to Britain and it is a blow, but what can you do? If anything, the situation there looks to be worse than here. I feel that we will be racing here far sooner than they will in Britain, but again, when will that be? I think if there's a turn in it, most of our owners will be happy to keep going. If it drags on into the middle of the summer that could be different."

North of the border, Crossgar trainer Colin McBratney is in a similar position of good owners being prepared to ride out the storm for the present time at least.

He said: "I have a few horses out during the day with rugs on them. I still have a dozen horses in training, most of them summer horses and we're obviously hoping things take a turn for the better. My owners are good. I had a couple of four-year-old point-to-pointers that I sent back to their owners for the summer, there was no point keeping them in, but most of the lads have kept all of their horses with me in the hopes that we can get things kicking off again.

Colin McBratney is feeling the loss of the meetings at Perth and AyrCredit: Caroline Norris

"Staff-wise, I have had to temporarily lay off one person, but he was working in a shop in the afternoons anyway, so it's not the end of the world for him. There's a government scheme here that covers 80 per cent of employees wages while this is going on and we can avail of that, but it might be June until we see any money."

McBratney has been a regular visitor to Britain over his career, and he is feeling the loss of those opportunities. He added: "I would always have a team of horses for Perth in April and also for the Scottish National meeting at Ayr. We always looked forward to that. But the government up here are doing a good job, they're going about it the right way and if we can ride the storm for the next month we should be grand."

More on racing and the coronavirus:

Trainers pay tribute to popular owner who died from the coronavirus

Nicky Henderson: this is the biggest crisis we've had to face in our lifetime

Newmarket racing community working together to help vulnerable residents

Keep up to date on the must-have news, tips, photos and more by following the Racing Post across all social channels