Bosses at Cheltenham were yesterday desperately trying to salvage the National Hunt Festival by staging the fixture next month.

The three days beginning on April 24 are the favourite for the rescheduled fixture, with the week before that also a possibility.

Hopes are high that an announcement will be made by the weekend over revised plans.

But if a suitable slot cannot be found, the Festival is set to be scrapped completely.

Cheltenham supremo Edward Gillespie was trying to put on a brave face after the shock news that the annual jumping showpiece could not take place next week.

The episode was tinged with farce as it emerged that the grazing habits of 23 sheep had prevented one of Britain's great sporting occasions taking place in its traditional slot.

''It's so intensely frustrating that this has happened,'' said Gillespie. ''So many people look forward to this meeting every year.

''It's not just the trainers, owners and racegoers who will be suffering but also the hoteliers and restauranteurs in the Cheltenham area.

''We had been hopeful but in the end we had to go by the veterinary advice.''

The racecourse was forced to accept that it was unable to fulfil the Ministry of Agriculture requirements for racing to take place during the foot and mouth outbreak.

Guidelines were contravened because the sheep had been grazing in the racecourse area within the last 28 days.

Insurers now face an £8m payout if the Festival is scrapped.

Cheltenham's preferred date for a rescheduled festival, April 24-26, clashes with the Punchestown Festival. There is also a three-day meeting in Scotland at Perth that week.

''It could end up being an international match - maybe a tri-nations championship,'' joked Gillespie.

Consultations have yet to take place with the Irish authorities but officials at Punchestown hope their meeting will still go ahead as planned.

''We are not asking them (the Irish) to cancel Punchestown or give the impression that we'll go ahead anyway,'' insisted Gillespie.

Cheltenham is also scheduled for racing on April 18 and 19 and the course could have added April 17 to make a three-day Festival.

But that is Easter week and there are difficulties over policing and catering arrangements. There is also a clash with Newmarket's Craven Meeting.

Re-opening of all the Festival races will not take place until a decision is made on the new dates.

Gillespie ruled out the possiblity of having the Festival in November and explained: ''That would change the nature of next season.

''If we can't run the Festival by the end of April the prospect is that there will be no Festival. In that case we will start afresh and prepare for next year.''

Gillespie admitted that he had been surprised by the turn of events that eventually brought to an end hopes of the meeting beginning on Tuesday.

It is the first time all three Festival days in March have been lost, though in 1978 Gold Cup day was snowed off and the race had to be staged in April.

Cheltenham had appeared to be winning their battle to run the Festival as scheduled.

But it all changed when the Ministry of Agriculture informed them at the start of this week that the guidelines regarding grazing animals had changed from 14 days to 28.

The sheep were allowed to graze on racecourse land just inside the two-mile start but not on the track itself.

''It's not normally a problem having them there and they help to keep the track clean and tidy,'' said Gillespie.

''They were removed by the farmer Nick Guilder on February 14 and under the 14-day provision that wasn't a problem.''

But then at the beginning of this week a paper arrived from MAFF changing the provision to 28 days.

Several days of talks followed before Cheltenham was forced to bow to the inevitable.

''We weren't able to begin to evaluate the new provisions until Tuesday,'' said Gillespie.