British Horseracing Board chairman Peter Savill strongly defended the decision to carry on racing in the face of the present foot and mouth crisis.

Savill, who had been in America on business when the outbreak was confirmed and the seven-day ban on racing decided, spoke at Plumpton yesterday where is chairman of the Sussex track.

He said: "I see it as a very straightforward decision, although a lot of emotion is attached to it. The outbreak is a concern not just to the farming fraternity but the whole country.

"It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture. There is no doubt in my mind that if the Ministry believed there was any risk whatsoever of racing continuing and adding to the dangers of spreading the disease then they would have come to the decision that racing should stop.

"They would have instructed us to introduce a ban."

Savill emphasised the economic importance to racing of continuing wherever necessary.

"As long as MAFF is happy for racing to continue we have a responsibility to our own industry not to put the 100,000 or so people employed in racing at risk," he continued.

"It is a huge industry, and the seven-day break we have had already shows what damage a long-term ban on racing would do.

"It would cause severe economic hardship if we came out in sympathy of the farmers, we are doing the right thing in deciding to race where we can."

He likened the outbreak to the perceived risk of the HIV virus some years ago.

"People thought that being in the same room as a sufferer put you at risk," he said.

"Of course, that was not true, but the public was not ready to accept the medical evidence put before them and I fear we may have the same situation here. I have to leave out the emotional side of it and go by the scientific evidence."

Asked why Ireland had banned racing and Britain had not, Savill replied: "When should we say we will be governed by another country's decision? Our Government is the British Government and therefore we must be guided by what they say.

"We also have to understand the emotional pressure a lot of farmers are under in their daily fear when inspecting their stock. Generally, throughout the farming community there is a strong feeling that they would prefer racing not to take place.

"However, farmers and rural people are the backbone of the National Hunt sport and look at the entries in hunter chases which are often from stables which are farm-based - there is still strong support for that type of race.

"People who think that the farming community are all against racing may not be correct. If the decision to carry on racing had been reversed, how many people would we have in our own industry who would be up in arms?

"Now we just want to stage as many meetings as possible, there are now up to six or seven that can't race and some others have decided they do not feel it is right for them to do so.

"That is a bit disappointing, we would like those courses to support the industry upon which they are themselves dependent."