Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
COURSE OF ACTION
Sport hopes to restart with eight-race card at Newcastle
NEWCASTLE will stage British racing’s comeback fixture a week today — government say-so permitting.
The British Horseracing Authority yesterday put some meat on the bones of its provisional POST-COVID-19 strategy, revealing that 13 meetings will take place in the first week of the sport’s resumption.
The BHA has consistently held back from putting a date on the restart, but Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to ease the coronavirus lockdown restrictions when he addresses the nation at 7pm on Sunday.
And BHA chiefs, led by Nick Rust (right), who meet with industry leaders the following morning, have inked in an eight-race meeting at Newcastle as the first action in
Britain since March 17, followed by six days of cards each.
A spokesman for Newcastle’s owners, Arena Racing Company, said yesterday evening: “We have been working with BHA and other stakeholders and have made sure that everything is in place for our racecourses to get back in action as soon as we are given the go-ahead.”
Race planners have divided Britain into geographical regions – North, South and Midlands – with Haydock tipped to stage Newbury’s Guineas trials, the Greenham Stakes and Fred Darling stakes, a fortnight tomorrow.
But Irish racing was dealt a hammer blow with the news it cannot make its restart from the coronavirus blackout until June 29.
Horse Racing Ireland has sought clarification from the Irish government since Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced his five-phase roadmap for the relaxing of controls last Friday.
The document schemed “behindtwo closed-doors sporting activities” for phase three.
And the delay was confirmed by the Ireland’s Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine last night. “It’s a fair chunk of the season but we are dependent on the ministers,” said Irish Racehorse Trainers Association chief executive Michael Grassick.
“However, the present situation could improve. We might get a reprieve.”