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Chester have cancelled their May meeting as the city centre course is too open to be able to stop crowds gathering, which other courses would not be able to do meetings behind closed doors.
Doncaster would not as it is common land and very open.
York is similar to Doncaster, if anything more open with only the last furlong or so enclosed by the stands and the entire infield being common land, bar the small course enclosure opposite the stands
Racedays see hundreds of non-paying locals congregating on the rails and wandering around the course, something I do myself quite regularly
So, until the ‘two’s a crowd’ restrictions are lifted any thought of resuming racing there ‘behind closed doors’ must surely be a non-runner
The Dante meeting hasn’t been officially cancelled yet but bookings for it have not been permitted for several weeks, and the preparatory groundworks usual from around now have been conspicuous by their absence
The racing post says the plan is that Newcastle and Lingfield will stage day after day meetings and the jockeys and trainers will stay in hotels to avoid travelling around.
Not sure how that works for the horses though.
Epsom also has the issue of common land. Newbury is now a housing estate with a racecourse in the residents back garden.
To me, it would seem logical to concentrate on tracks that are not adjacent to housing, such as Bath, Salisbury, Goodwood, Newmarket July course, Chelmsford, Nottingham.
Not so sure about the northern tracks, but I remember Ripon as being well outside the town, ditto Carlisle.
Would it not be impossible to stop people wandering over the heath at Newmarket to watch the racing?
Could the racing at Cagnes Sur Mer work as an example. We’ve had runners here and the
trainers take a small select group to the course, stay a couple of weeks and run their horses.
It is not ideal for large numbers of horses/ trainers and there would have to be balloting of some
description as to who can run where (and owners being willing) but it might get something up and away.Would it not be impossible to stop people wandering over the heath at Newmarket to watch the racing?
Can’t speak for Newmarket Heath but if they tried to cordon off the Knavesmire in order for racing to take place then the existing somewhat ambiguous feelings that many of York’s residents have about ‘the races’ would cease to be ambiguous and the always-bubbling-under animosity surface in no uncertain manner
In any case there are ancient laws regarding access to and freedom-to-roam on common land that are distinct from municipal parks: closure of the latter is at the discretion of local authorities, but not the former which would in all likelihood require a Government Act
Ripon is indeed a couple of miles from the town centre
Personally I think it highly unlikely that racing will take place again until other professional sports are also given the go ahead to resume. To plead ‘special case’ or whatever will only cause much pissed-offness in other sports who would rightly claim ‘why aren’t we a special case too?’
Most other sports are contact sports which makes it difficult for them to restart even behind closed doors, the most likely sports to restart are Golf, darts, horse racing, possibly tennis, f1 and athletics.
Football, rugby, cycling, boxing and basketball all have to hope the social distancing is reduced.
I’ve been to Ffos Las a few times and still have no idea where it is so I’m sure you could stage meetings there and not worry about too many people turning up.
Is there really animosity to the racing in York, Drone? What is the reason – behaviour?
Animosity is probably too strong, annoyance would be better; from the type of resident who moans about the ‘bloody tourists’ flocking to York; those who complain they can’t get to Tescos on racedays because Tadcaster Road is gridlocked; or those who, in this case with some justification, complain about rowdy behaviour apres ski
I’d imagine it’s pretty much the same wherever the racecourse. Locals can be a tedious bunch
Me, I just feel privileged to live near a splendid racecourse on the outskirts of a splendid city
I would have thought that Goodwood should be relatively straightforward to hold a meeting behind closed doors, at least from the point of view of keeping the public out. Brighton would be out of the question however as the course is practically in the town
I think racing could go ahead with an audience before other sports and stuff what others think
A limited crowd of annual members only maybe? It’s easy to distance at racing compared with football which is knackered for a very long time to come (which many of us find a little bit amusing)
County cricket could work too
Formula one is not a sport and should be banned permanently just for the hell of it
If the County Championship matches were held behind close doors would anyone notice the difference?
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