How this potentially catastrophic development is likely to affect racecourses

The new normal had already become a far too familiar normal. There is now no doubt that for racing – as for countless other sports – things are going to get worse before they get better.

If the government's latest Covid restrictions do indeed remain in place for six months, a whole year will have elapsed during which the vast majority of regular racegoers will not once have gone racing. For those frustrated fans, that will be hugely disappointing. For the sport, it is a terrifying thought that threatens to become an appalling reality.

Racing only survives and flourishes because it is a form of public entertainment. Racecourses take the public's money. That money then trickles down through the industry's food chain. The longer racecourses are starved of that income, the more racecourses and racing's participants will suffer.