The debate raging about whether Cheltenham's festival will go ahead in 11 days could now be academic with the news that the track falls within the exclusion zone of a suspected foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Cheltenham officials face an agonising 48-hour wait before test results are likely to emerge from a suspected outbreak on a farm less than five miles from the racetrack.

Those same officials had been clinging to hopes that the National Hunt festival could after all go ahead on Tuesday week despite the Irish trainers confirming yesterday they would not be sending their horses to the UK.

Last evening, however, the clerk of the course, Simon Claisse, reported: "Something that we've always had in the back of our minds, and will obviously bring fear into the minds of local farmers and the local community, is that there is a farm within about five miles of here that is under investigation from the Ministry of Agriculture."

Claisse expanded: "It has a `class C notice' served on it which means for up to five miles from that farm there is an exclusion zone, and we fall within that zone.

"I ought just to clarify that by saying there are about 150 farms in the country under investigation, and it will take a day or two before we know whether there is an infection on that farm. I'm told by Ministry experts there is only a 5 per cent chance the farm is infected, so we're keeping our fingers crossed."

At the start of the foot-and-mouth crisis last week, a farm less than 30 miles from Cheltenham came under suspicion but results proved negative.

Earlier in the day, before news of the latest scare emerged, the Cheltenham chief executive, Edward Gillespie, when asked how late a decision could be taken about the festival going ahead on schedule, had replied: "It would probably be up to the end of next week."

The foot-and-mouth crisis last evening hit at the very heart of Irish racing when the training of all racehorses on the Curragh grounds was banned.

Up to 1,200 horses, almost 25 per cent of the racehorses trained in Ireland, are based on the Curragh, which is land owned by the Department of Defence and leased to the Turf Club.

The Department of Defence has ordered the removal of all animals from the Curragh, including the thousands of sheep that roam free on the Kildare training establishment.

Some of Ireland's best-known trainers, including the Derby and Arc de Triomphe winner John Oxx and the Melbourne Cup winner Dermot Weld, are based on the Curragh.

That news came hot on the heels of the Irish trainers' decision to formally declare they would not be sending horses to the Cheltenham festival.

That means the short-term end, at least, to Istabraq's attempt at a historic fourth success in the Champion Hurdle, although he could run at a postponed festival in mid-April.

Also on the home front, there appears to be increased likelihood that there will be a complete shutdown of racing in Ireland. The Racehorse Trainers Association chairman, Willie Mullins, said yesterday: "We are looking at a ban on racing until Easter at least, and possibly even longer if foot-and-mouth is here."