UK plan to ban mass gatherings leaves racing in balance

The British racing industry is awaiting instruction on whether the sport will continue in England and Wales behind closed doors, as in Ireland and Scotland, or shut down entirely following reports mass gatherings are set to be banned in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Despite formally moving to the delay stage of the coronavirus action plan on Thursday, prime minister Boris Johnson gave the thumbs-up for sporting events to continue.

However, on Friday night there was a significant change of direction with government sources suggesting a ban on mass gatherings of more than 500 people is imminent.

It is thought a clampdown could start to take effect as early as next weekend, although exact timescales are not clear.

England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty has previously said stopping mass gatherings will not have a huge impact on the spread of the virus, but the decision has been made in some other countries to limit the impact on public services.

Racing's next major events include the valuable meeting at Newbury next Saturday, followed by the start of the Flat season on turf at Doncaster on Saturday, March 28 and the three-day Grand National meeting at Aintree from April 2-4.

On Betfair's 'will racing go ahead' market for Aintree, 'no' was trading at 2-13 with nearly £75,000 matched at 9.30am on Saturday.

British racing moved towards an increasingly isolated position on Friday with the sport continuing to forge ahead as normal despite the coronavirus pandemic shutting down sporting events across the globe.

Kelso’s fixture on Monday will take place behind closed doors, with Musselburgh potentially taking the same action later this month, after comments made by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon about plans to limit gatherings of over 500 people, but racing otherwise remains unaffected by the outbreak of Covid-19.

The position puts British racing at odds with not only other racing jurisdictions such as France and Ireland, but a raft of other sports including football, tennis, golf, F1 and rugby, which have postponed or cancelled competitions.

However, the BHA’s approach to liaise with government and follow its advice around the virus received backing from professionals and industry representatives, as figures showed more than 250,000 spectators visited the Cheltenham Festival over the course of the four-day fixture.

Grand National-winning trainer Richard Newland, a former GP who is now chairman of a private healthcare business, said: “The whole thing is very difficult and once you start doing postponements and putting things off it’s very hard to restart so it’s hard to say if that would be the right approach for racing.

“If you could shut down racing for, say, three weeks and that would guarantee everything would be fine then perhaps you could consider that, but I suspect if that happened you’d end up having to be off for a lot longer than that original time frame.”

He added: “In general, I think there has been an overreaction to the illness and there’s been a general hysteria; there were 19,000 people who died from flu last year.”

Racing’s Covid-19 industry steering group met on Friday as the fourth and final day of the Cheltenham Festival took place in front of a crowd of 68,859, down from 71,953 last year, with the overall figure for the week of 251,684, down 14,873 from 2019, a decrease of 5.5 per cent.

A statement from the steering group on Friday said: “British racing continues to be in close contact with the UK government and has been following their advice to continue with business as usual, subject to public health guidance.

“We are aware of the decisions taken by a number of sports today to suspend fixtures in advance of any government decision coming into effect. Racing’s leaders are monitoring the situation daily and are currently considering a range of options in this rapidly developing situation. Contingency plans are ready as required.”

How racing is approaching coronavirus

Britain
Adopting a ‘business as usual’ approach while continuing to liaise with government

France
Restricted access to staff, media and professionals with no spectators permitted “until further notice”

Ireland
Restricted access to staff, media and professionals with no spectators, bookmakers or Tote staff allowed until March 29

US
Santa Anita, Golden Gates, Keeneland, Aqueduct, Turfway Park, Laurel, Pimlico and Gulfstream will all conduct racing without any spectators. Licensed individuals can attend

Dubai
No spectators permitted for the Dubai World Cup meeting. Events around the fixture, such as Breakfast with the Stars, have been cancelled

Italy
All sport postponed until April 3

Australia
Racing Victoria will be racing behind closed doors but Racing New South Wales are allowing racing to go ahead unaffected

Hong Kong
Slight easing of restrictions with owners who have already booked tables allowed to attend as well as owners with runners. Professionals and officials can attend, but no spectators

Members of the Professional Jockeys Association (PJA) and National Trainers Federation (NTF) continue to receive updated advice on the spread of coronavirus, which has led to ten deaths and 798 positive tests in Britain, and have thrown their support behind the BHA.

Rupert Arnold, NTF chief executive, said: “We have been part of the steering group and that is leading the approach based on government advice, and we’re happy with that position.

“It’s a fluid situation and we’re happy to be guided by the advice and follow that, and continue to keep our members updated about preparations they need to make.”

Updated instructions have also been offered to PJA members, and chief executive Paul Struthers said: “We’ve issued updated advice to our members after the advice from the government changed around self-isolation, and we continue to liaise with the BHA too.”

Racing authorities in Ireland, France, Australia, America and the UAE have ramped up their approach to the coronavirus outbreak with spectators banned from attending fixtures, including the $12 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan this month.

The Dubai World Cup meeting will take place behind closed doorsCredit: Edward Whitaker

On Friday, the Premier League, EFL and WSL football leagues were postponed until April 3 and England’s international friendly matches against Italy and Denmark this month were cancelled. Professional and grassroots football in Scotland has also been halted.

Staff at Arsenal, West Ham United, Everton and Chelsea had already self-isolated after players had tested positive and shown signs of having the illness, while Uefa postponed next week's Champions League and Uefa Cup matches.

Furthermore, the US Masters golf, Wales vs Scotland in the Six Nations, England’s cricket tour of Sri Lanka, the London marathon and F1 motor racing were either called off or put back as a result of coronavirus.

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