Well known trainer Ruth Carr has become one of the first handlers in the sport to shut down her Yorkshire stable, cutting costs for owners and taking all 55 of her horses out of training in an attempt to help stop the spread of Covid-19.
With the British flat season very much up in the air as to when it will get underway, the trainer decided to stop her normal daily life at her stables but insists that her horses will be turned out daily in paddocks at her Mowbray House Farm.
Carr made this decision off the back of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech on Monday evening which will see the country in a state of lockdown for at least the next three weeks.
(Credit Racing Post) She said:"I can't see light at the end of the tunnel yet and can't keep charging my owners full fees when I haven't got a goal for them. I hope if I look after them now, they will look after me later."
The Yorkshire based handler explained that the decision to do this should not interrupt the horses routine but will impact the staff and people at her yard, with the big stress on trying to stop the spread of Coronavirus.
Carr added: "It's a normal day-to-day occurrence for them to go out. There will be no formal exercise but you would be surprised how much they do, especially running around in the sunshine we have at the moment. They will keep themselves ticking over.
"Nobody knows what is right or wrong and I might be doing the wrong thing if racing gets back in May but we are all in this together with bigger things to think about."
The government have offered assistance through its furlough scheme that will cover 80 per cent of wages for affected staff and Ruth Carr will apply for this, like many companies have across the country.
"This probably involves three full-time and three part-time staff," added Carr.
"We were getting excited about the season, getting the turf horses ready. They were working well, just coming right, getting their summer coats in the sunshine and it is hard to put them on the back burner."
Carr, before the pandemic, had been in some fine form with two winners from her last nine runners and was planning on taking four runners to Wolverhampton last Monday but it was obviously cancelled.