Cheltenham Festival ‘probably should not have taken place’, says Irish racing chief

Brian Kavanagh, Chief Executive of Horse Racing Ireland, believes that March’s Cheltenham Festival “probably” should have been cancelled following the continued spread of the Coronavirus.

Cheltenham organisers drew widespread criticism for allowing the four-day racing festival to take place as normal despite numerous images surfacing from Italy showing the effects of Covid-19 and confirmed British cases rising daily.

Over 60,000 spectators attended Cheltenham every day from March 10-13 in what is one of the premier horse racing events of the year, though many people went for several days with 100,000 fewer people attended than the overall 250,000 tickets that were sold.

On the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, Kavanagh said: “It’s very interesting, that was the very week where the whole thing ramped up with coronavirus. I went there for the first two days and it was remarkable that I came back to a different country on Wednesday night to the one I left on Monday.

“I think on Tuesday, the images from Italy started to come through in great detail and by the end of that week, we were racing behind closed doors in Ireland. 

“I think with hindsight, people would recognise that Cheltenham would have been much better if it went behind closed doors, not a decision that we have any control over, it’s entirely a matter for the British authorities and the British government. Social distancing as we know it now was not really that well known at that time. 

“The irony is that while Cheltenham was going ahead and people were at the races, the pubs back in Ireland were packed with people watching Cheltenham, but it certainly couldn’t have come at a worse week, it was unfortunate because it was the last major sporting event to take place. Should it have taken place? With hindsight, probably no but everyone’s wise after the event.”

Recent figures show there have been 181 deaths in Gloucestershire hospitals due to the Coronavirus and there are even calls for an investigation into whether the Cheltenham Festival contributed to the spread of the disease throughout the United Kingdom.

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