Coronavirus: Horseracing plans to get sport up and running despite COVID-19 disruption

Racing legend Sir Anthony McCoy has backed plans for the sport to return - possibly next month - having been on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Horseracing's governing body has drawn up detailed plans for the sport to make a return with unprecedented restrictions, which would see jockeys and officials living in quarantine at racecourses.

There have been no race meetings anywhere in the UK since 17 March, but the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has come up with a radical proposal that could see racing resume, if the government and its scientific advisers back it.

Phase one of the plan would see racing take place behind closed doors at a small number of racecourses and with jockeys, officials and staff all living on site, effectively in quarantine, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Horses would be brought in and out each day, with fields limited to 12 horses per race.

Twenty-time champion jockey McCoy told Sky News: "I would never, ever have thought something like this could have happened, but if it was our only option at the moment, then why not?

"With the right government and medical guidelines we can get it back in a restricted capacity and hopefully get it going again.

"If it was a possibility and our only possibility, then it's worth making that step.

"We all know there are a lot more important things happening in the world at the moment, but at some stage we need to make that positive step, as safely as we can."

Racing is worth £4bn a year to the UK economy and directly employs 18,000 people.

If the shutdown were to continue to the end of June, it would see the industry suffer a predicted loss of £193m.

Trainer Ed Walker is preparing for a busy summer of Flat racing at his Kingsdown stables in Lambourn, where 30 staff look after 80 horses.

But it's impossible to plan, when there are currently so many unknowns.

"A lot of owners will want their horses out of training, totally understandably, if there's no racing on the horizon," Walker told Sky News.

"They are not going to want to pay £2,500 per horse per month in training fees, just for the sake of it.

"That will result in empty stables, losing staff, furloughing staff. Disaster, really."