WE’RE GOOD TO GO
Racing ready to resume once Government eases restrictions
BRITISH Horseracing Authority (BHA) bosses have given more positive signs that the return of racing could be imminent.
May 15 or 16 have both been suggested as possible dates for the resumption of the sport behind closed doors.
And yesterday BHA chief executive Nick Rust said racing was in a position to return within a week once the green light is given by the government to ease coronavirus restrictions.
The BHA is still working on a revised fixture list after asking racecourses last week to submit applications if they were in a position to resume.
In a statement, it said there was no official date for resumption but offered encouragement to the industry: “To help trainers plan, during this week we will be developing a provisional programme for the first seven days of racing following resumption – whatever the resumption date.”
And Rust (below) fuelled the belief that racing was ready by saying: “We can be one of the first to go.
“We don’t want to make the case ahead of public opinion. We’re just saying we’re ready when you’re ready, when the public health advice is ready.”
He told the BBC: “We don’t have Premier League footballers training for six weeks in our sport – our equine and human athletes are ready to go within a week to help bring live sport back.”
Jonjo Sanderson, responsible for
Redcar and Wetherby as the clerk of the course and Catterick and Thirsk in a managerial capacity, has applied to race at all of his courses although he said a return on Friday week was “optimistic”. He said: “We’ve got to activate thing’s at a local level, we’ve got to get our racing surfaces right, groundsmen have been furloughed, we’ve got to get medical teams, find PPE and testing kits, it’s an optimistic date (May 15), I think, but that’s my personal view.
“We are waiting at the moment to hear back from the BHA as to when that might happen and the fixture list they are going to produce.We obviously have no idea as May and June fixtures have been cancelled so it is about creating a new fixture list from the courses that want to race.”
Sanderson has experienced racing behind closed doors at Wetherby before it was stopped on March 17 following the coronavirus outbreak.
“I’ve got some experience of behind closed doors but from a medical point of view and PPE, that has gone up a few notches since we raced at Wetherby in March,” he said.
“And, obviously, there is the financial aspect of it. We have to work out whether we can afford to do it. Betting shops are closed. One of the biggest income streams is the media rights through betting shops.
“It’s an industry, not just a sporting activity, racing will need all the working parts getting together to get it going again.”