PEOPLE WANTED A LAST FIX OF ENJOYMENT BEFORE THE BIG SHUTDOWN

WHEN racing historians come to look back on Cheltenham 2020 they may characterise it as the Great Escape. The Festival will conclude today with the Gold Cup, and when the last punters drift away into the Cotswolds evening, the sense among organisers will be that they got away with it, after a week of rapidly escalating change. At what cost to people’s health, nobody can be sure as yet. Racegoers are considered to be a hardy breed — and we might be about to find out just how much. For all the excitement of yesterday’s sport, Prestbury Park could only be considered as fertile ground for people to pass on the coronavirus to one another. The attendance was 65,218, a number which suggests that only a small percentage have been deterred from coming, despite what is going on outside the bucolic bubble. That was barely 2,500 down on the historically high numbers a year ago. At this mass gathering, the crowd were crammed into the drinking dens and viewing enclosures. Revellers have been determined to carry on very much as usual. Indeed, the marginal reduction in numbers belied the impression among regulars that it has been quieter this year, both on the course and down in the town. If there has been a behavioural change it seems to have been that the bars and restaurants in the evenings have been less thronged than normal. A slight ‘End of Days’ feeling has pervaded the place, as if people want a last fix of enjoyment before the big shutdown. One veteran compared it to the band playing in the last hours of the Titanic. The only obvious dampener on the atmosphere yesterday stemmed from heavily-backed sentimental favourite Paisley Park coming up badly short in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle. Yet in various areas behind the scenes, there has clearly been anxiety, not just about this week but what is to come. The Press

room, for example, was several journalists lighter yesterday with some from Ireland going home after Wednesday because they needed to return to elderly relatives. From today, racing in Ireland will go on behind closed doors until at least March 29. The prospect of the same happening in the UK is troubling on-course bookmakers. John Hooper, who runs the Sid Hooper operation at around 160 meetings per year and has 16 staff at Cheltenham, was trying to be philosophical about what seems imminent. ‘We will be OK and I don’t see much point in getting stressed about what is beyond our control,’ he said. ‘But a lot of people are worried about courses being shut down to the public, the smaller operators in particular. They could find it very hard and it’s something everyone is talking about.’ Up on the concourse, one pop-up drinks vendor observed that the next few months will be bleak if there are no public events where they can take their van. Next week is, for everyone in racing, a very quiet slot in the calendar whatever happens. It is not long, however, before meetings resume that are key to the sport’s wider economy. March 28 sees the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster, and the following Thursday the three days of Aintree begin, with 150,000 thirsty punters due to descend. Ian Renton, Cheltenham’s regional director, was not keen yesterday to discuss any possibility of big changes being imposed for the final day. ‘We will go by the government advice,’ he said bluntly before walking off. Word from Downing Street came and, by the skin of its teeth, the 2020 Festival will climax with business as usual.