ONE of the country's leading horse racing trainers has vowed to carry on racing, despite a foot-and-mouth outbreak next to his County Durham stables.

Howard Johnson said last night that he would continue to exercise his horses on roads around his base, near Crook, despite pressure from people in the area.

A new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed at Old White Lea Farm, owned by farmer Bob Marley, yesterday.

Mr Johnson said: "We are just going on as normal and hoping for the best. I am absolutely fastened in at the minute."

While in the early days of the crisis, Mr Johson backed a decision to temporarily suspend the sport, last night the trainer said that he had backing from Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) officials to continue travelling to race venues, as long as he followed strict guidelines and disinfected his vehicles, and stayed on main roads while training.

He said: "They have no problem as long as I do the job by the book, and they are very happy so far.''

He has continued to race since the racing ban was lifted, and had runners at Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, on Saturday.

Mr Johnson also has a 1,000-acre farm, on which he keeps 450 cattle, plus 600 sheep.

Mr Johnson has had racing winners in the Whitbread Gold Cup at Sandown and the Tingle Creek at Cheltenham, as well as a third in the Grand National and runner-up last year in the Queen Mother Chase, at Cheltenham.

He said: "This has been a disaster for the farmers and seems to be getting worse.

"There has been a lot of people against racing who want to stop it, but I have got to look after my owners as well."

He also continues to ride out the 40 horses that he trains at the moment.

He said: "When this first started, we were getting a lot of hassle from the public, but we are following the regulations when we exercise the horses, and Maff has said it would rather we use main roads down into Crook than back roads.