The plan is to resume horse racing in the UK at Newcastle on Monday, pending the go-ahead from the government. If the sport returns to British tracks on June 1, there will protocols in place for a card that should have maximum fields. There are 369 entries for the eight scheduled races, for which jockeys and stalls handlers will be wearing face masks.

The last meeting in the UK took place on March 17, four days after the end of the Cheltenham Festival. The sport came to a halt because of the spread of the coronavirus, but the pandemic appears to be under control in the British Isles. The action will take place behind closed doors with participants following social distancing guidelines whenever possible.

Racing is in a good position to return on Monday because it is a non-contact sport. While jockeys cannot stay six feet apart during the running of a race, the risk assessment suggests the chances of transmission are very small. Track staff and connections of the horses will be asked to social distance and repeatedly wash their hands. Contact sports like football and rugby will be further delayed because the potential for the transmission of Covid-19 is greater.

Close contact between jockeys and stall handlers is unavoidable, and that is why the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) will adopt protocols if racing goes ahead at the start of next week. The appetite for the sport is reflected in the entries for Newcastle on Monday. The return of racing in the UK requires government approval, which is expected to come with an announcement on Thursday.

One of the best indicators of the likelihood of something to happen is the Betfair betting exchange market. At the time of writing, the back price for racing to resume on June 1 is -625 and falling fast. It's about the same price for Royal Ascot to go ahead, so the BHA's optimism seems to be justified.

All the races at Newcastle will have a maximum limited field of 12 runners and all the places are highly likely to be taken. The smallest entry is 29 runners, while two races for horses aged three and older have attracted over 60 first declarations. Every race should have enough runners for place terms of one-fifth the odds for three places. Online bookmakers will not settle each-way bets in the handicaps at one-quarter the odds and four places, because no such race will have a field of 16 horses or more.

Each of the eight contests at Newcastle has seen declarations of at least twice the maximum fields. They should be competitive betting heats and latent betting demand. The UK government is subsidising the earnings of employed and self-employed workers during the crisis, so punters should have money in their pockets to spend. The sport will resume in Ireland at Naas on Monday, June 8.

One of the banes of a stall handler's working life is a difficult horse, but trainers have been asked not to enter horses that could cause trouble at the start. There will only be two handlers allowed to push horses into the stalls, so a smooth operation is required. As raceday staff operate in a disciplined way under normal circumstances, they should adapt to the new measures quickly.

According to the BHA: “The key principle is to act in line with government policy to protect those working and competing at race-meetings, and to reassure the wider community that the risks of spreading coronavirus have been kept to a minimum.”