21 February
Official confirmation at an abattoir at Brentwood in Essex of Britain's first case of foot-and-mouth for more than 20 years.

22 February
First point-to-point meeting is abandoned and a hunting ban imposed for one week.

23 February
Meeting at Newcastle in three days' time is called off as course falls within an exclusion zone. Nine of 11 weekend point-to-point meetings cancelled. Share prices of bookmaking firms fall.

25 February
Irish agriculture minister Joe Walsh suggests chances of Cheltenham Festival going ahead are, "worse than 50-50". Seventh outbreak is confirmed.

26 Feburary
Number of confirmed cases rises to 12. Trainers including Kim Bailey, Ferdy Murphy and Wilf Storey call for racing to be halted. All point-to-points are cancelled.

27 February

Racing is suspended in Britain for seven days. Irish government bans horse and greyhound racing indefinitely and calls on racegoers and trainers to stay away from Cheltenham.

Number of confirmed cases now 18. Majority of trainers support suspension decision. Pundit John McCririck accuses racing of having "self-destructed".

28 February
Bookmakers call a halt to betting on races at the Cheltenham Festival.

Government welcomes "sensible and responsible" suspension. Extra greyhound meetings and numbers draws laid on for British betting shop customers.

1 March
Suspected case of foot-and-mouth at Woolstone, five miles from Cheltenham, heightens fears for Festival.

Irish trainers announce that they will not be travelling to Cheltenham. Fears of outbreak at Lambourn training centre prove to be a false alarm.

2 March
Jockey Club and BHB issue guidelines for re-start of racing in Britain. But Catterick and Carlisle call off meetings scheduled for following week.

3 March
Towcester, Bangor and Wincanton all call off meetings. Jockey Club veterinary advisor Peter Webbon emphasises low risk that racing could spread disease.

5 March
French Government announces a ban on the movement of horses with leading fancies First Gold, Baracouda, Bilboa and Jair du Cochet all likely to miss the Cheltenham Festival.

6 March
Farmers' representatives plead for racing not to resume until foot-and-mouth has been properly contained.

Another suspected case emerges at Lambourn, casting fresh doubts over the Cheltenham Festival.

7 March
Cheltenham National Hunt Festival postponed.

8 March
Aintree officials confident the Grand National will go ahead despite the postponement of the Cheltenham Festival.

14 March
Cheltenham re-arranged for 17-19 April, clashing with the Craven Flat meeting at Newmarket.

18 March
The Queen voices her concern on the foot- and-mouth crisis - but enters her horse, Princes Street, to run at Doncaster. He is later withdrawn because of the heavy going.

19 March
Irish Racehorse Trainers' Association reiterate their plea for Irish horses and trainers not to go to the re-arranged Cheltenham Festival or the Grand National in April.

20 March
Concerns for the rescheduled Cheltenham Festival are heightened - this time when a farm in Sandhurst, one mile outside the Government exclusion zone, is infected with the foot-and-mouth virus.

21 March
Mark Tompkins, chairman of the National Federation of Racehorse Trainers, gives his blessing for the go-ahead of the new Flat racing season.

22 March
The first foot-and-mouth case in Ireland for 60 years is confirmed - causing more chaos and uncertainty on the resumption of racing in the country.

26 March
Wolverhampton escapes two new outbreaks in the area, falling just outside the exclusion zone.

27 March
Catterick's first Flat meeting of the season is cancelled after it falls inside the exclusion zone of a new outbreak in the area.

30 March
Aintree officials call for punters to get behind the Grand National after an unusually quiet ante-post betting market.

31 March
Confimed case of foot-and-mouth five miles from Cheltenham Racecourse places the rescheduled Festival under threat.

1 April
Festival is called off, and Cheltenham MD Edward Gillespie urges racing fans to get behind the Martell Grand National meeting, due to start on 5 April.

5 April

Three-day Grand National Meeting starts at Aintree with foot-and-mouth precautions in place.