Coronavirus: Horse racing behind closed doors in Britain until end of March

68,859 people attended Cheltenham on Friday when Al Boum Photo won the Gold Cup

Horse racing in Britain will be held behind closed doors from Tuesday until at least the end of March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Racing in England had continued despite the outbreak, with the Cheltenham Festival recording an attendance of 251,684 across four days last week.

The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said it plans for scheduled meetings to go ahead, but some may be cancelled.

The Grand National is set to take place at Aintree on 4 April.

The BHA has indicated it will liaise with the government over whether the event can go ahead.

"Any fixtures that take place in England, Wales and Scotland, initially until the end of March, will take place without spectators and with restrictions on the number of attendees," a BHA statement said.

Tuesday's meetings at Taunton and Wetherby will be the first affected by the announcement.

Races in Scotland, including Monday's meeting at Kelso, have already been held behind closed doors because of the Scottish government's guidance against gatherings of more than 500 people.

Nick Rust, chief executive of the BHA, said: "The restrictions we are putting in place to close racing to spectators and limit attendees will reduce demand on public services.

"We also have a range of measures in place designed in response to the government's guidance on public health and we will continue to update these as appropriate.

"We acknowledge that today's decision will also impact on local businesses, especially hotels and restaurants, who are struggling at this time.

"We are following the government's advice to strike a balance between protecting public health and maintaining business activity, and will continue to do so. We thank our customers and staff for their support."

Earlier on Monday, the BHA announced its headquarters had been closed until further notice because of suspected cases of coronavirus.

Racing in France has also been suspended until 15 April.

Comments

what is the most frightening thing that you have ever seen happen in life

It’s a man looking over his family during the British Raj in India. There were many cases of cannibalism and he feared someone would try to kill and eat his children or wife. I acknowledge this is a difficult picture to look at— but I included it for a reason. Many people in the US/West aren’t even aware of the terrible famines that swept through India and which are comparable to the holocaust in deaths (an estimated ~30 million people have died in famines in India). This was taken from the Great Famine of 1876–1878, which was far worse than the infamous Bengal Famine. It was caused by a crop failure/drought and was exacerbated by the crown’s export of wheat abroad. In total, 5.6 - 9 million people died (it’s hard to get exact figures). And within huge statistics like these, are forgotten stories. These are individuals and families, who slowly faced the despair of knowing they had no food and would have no food in the near future. They faced the horror of knowing there was

WHAT A HUSBAND TOLD HIS WIFE THE NIGHT OF THEIR MARRIAGE/ WEDDING

My wife, everyone has gone home. The music is quiet, the celebration is over. Our wedding was beautiful but it is now in the past. We have finished the wedding/marriage, it is now time to build our marriage. All that is left now is the two of us… What we will become tomorrow, starts from tonight. Our life is no longer the same. There was a day you put on one red dress… You looked so beautiful in it. That Day I wanted to just touch you! We were in the Cinema and I was so tempted. I wanted to just take you inside the toilet and kiss you but I couldn’t. Guess what? Now I have you forever, I can do that everyday. Before I take off your cloth and make love to you… let me tell you few things. I have nothing to hide from you from this day. My phone, you can use it like your own. You can access my facebook, my twitter and my Instagram From today, I have become a child. For the past five years of my life, I have been a man. I wake myself up in the morning, sometimes I go to bed hung

MARRIED OR NOT, YOU SHOULD READ This life moment

“When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes. Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know crewhat I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why? You know I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her! With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten

Welcome to whitephilip blog

Search This Blog