It’s on, but will Festival fever still be as big a draw this year?

Coronavirus threat may mean some avoid the Cheltenham crowds, Alan Tyers writes

Like hundreds of thousands of British and Irish sports lovers, I have been looking forward to the 2020 Cheltenham Festival since about 5.40pm on Friday March 15, 2019.

I am lucky enough to be going this week and, like many others, have spent the past fortnight wondering if the Festival would be cancelled as a coronavirus precaution.

If there is an uncertain outcome, there are wagers to be made and by yesterday lunchtime the Betfair market on whether Cheltenham would be on or not had seen £4.1million traded, reassuring proof in these testing times that people will bet on absolutely anything. It looks all but certain to be on at the time of writing, but a few days ago, “No” had been nearly evens on Betfair.

Cheltenham is so vital to the UK and Irish sporting and gambling industries – not to mention the £100million boost to the regional economy – only a government edict would make racing cancel its prime jumps event.

A case of the virus in Cheltenham on Sunday afternoon, taking the tally in Gloucestershire to three, has not altered widespread resolve to hold the fixture.

That then shifts the question of whether to attend back on to the individual, which as adults should, indeed, be our fundamental right.

I am certain some of us fortunate to have a ticket have, if only briefly, weighed up whether to give it a swerve.

Cheltenham is busy, it can be rammed, patrons are crammed into bars, food stalls and walkways. People are boisterous, often well-refreshed, shouting and hugging and it is a tremendous and lovely thing. It is also, you have to say, an environment tailor-made for spreading an illness that, as best we know, is transmitted via droplets in coughs and sneezes.

The advice, as with everywhere else, is not to travel if you are feeling rough, but while many of us would happily plead corona concerns to get out of unwanted obligations, it is not beyond the realms that someone would take a punt that their symptoms are just a bit of a cold, rather than miss out on the event they have been looking forward to all year.

The racecourse is doing everything it reasonably can, by hiring extra bathroom attendants

and putting hand-sanitiser stations at 24 locations around the course. Public health advice is also widely available.

However, the fact is that one takes a risk in going, but then life is risky, is it not?

And no sporting event, surely, could be worse than a Tube carriage or a children’s party, and nobody is talking about cancelling them.

Like a lot of issues of today – racism, equal pay, violence – it feels that sport is expected to not only sort itself out but be a leader, beacon and bellwether for the rest of society. It seems unfair to lump coronavirus decision-making on Cheltenham.

So, let’s go racing. By doing so, we lend sport, the economy, society and just a simple refusal to be crushed by worry, our (wellwashed and freshly sanitised) hand.

It’s not beyond the realms someone would take a punt their symptoms are just a bit of a cold