Coronavirus warnings fail to discourage Festival crowd
It was business as usual on opening day as more than 60,000 packed the Gloucestershire track ‘One group of lads wore face masks for banter’
SPORTS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
Aided by a walking stick and already nursing a sniffle, 88-year-old Mick Easterby is what might be described by the NHS as “high risk” amid the coronavirus crisis. But try telling him that. “People are getting windy for nothing,” says the oldest trainer on the circuit, joining his contemporaries in Cheltenham’s parade ring yesterday.
“It’s all right. You just have to carry on. Think nothing of it. There’s always something popping up. You’ve got to learn to survive it. What is it any way? More people die of flu than this coronavirus. You have to die somehow. What does it matter?”
Easterby’s words are hardly in line with the Government warnings, but the same defiance was mirrored across the site yesterday, with crowds dipping below average, but not by much. More than 300 hand dispensers were dotted across the venue, but by mid-afternoon the strict instructions on the loudspeakers to keep hands clean had been forgotten by many.
Viv Turner, a 58-year-old restaurant owner from Belfast, was among the dutiful few who made their way for a squirt of hand gel between races. “To be quite honest I was initially shocked everyone is so relaxed about it all,” he said. “But once you’ve got a bet on and had a beer it’s business as usual. Clearly, if I’m going to get it, it will probably happen today.
“I have family members who had asthma so I’m going to enjoy today, but go and stay in a Travelodge if I start coughing and sneezing in the next few days.”
Racegoers had been left in no doubt about their hygiene duties as they arrived on site. Amid the announcement of runners and riders for the opening races was a recorded message on the loudspeaker instructing the crowds to wash their hands. “This is a Government notice,” the message declared.
Some of those who came had left elderly relatives at home. Mark Edwards, from Stroud, 49, said: “I’ve been coming with my dad since I was 16. He’s not here today because of the virus, but he all but forced me to come down and keep up the tradition. I’ll be washing my hands a lot, but what can you do? I think we’ll all be exposed to the virus eventually.”
The racecourse last night announced the crowd as 60,664, more than 7,000 down on last year’s first-day attendance of 67,934. Ian Renton, regional director of the Jockey Club, said: “We are very happy ... considering the uncertainty of the last fortnight.”
With the only pharmacist selling out of individual hand gel bottles by the end of lunchtime, punters were instead reliant on the extra sinks at the 2,000 toilets and the communal hand sanitisers.
Virus fears had no discernible impact, however, on the list of celebrity attendees. The VIP list included Joe Marler, fresh from his Alun Wyn Jones fondling row, and his England team-mates. Zara Tindall defied any fears over the virus by mingling freely in the parade ring as part of her new role as racecourse director. Her older brother, Peter Phillips, was also a talking point, having been seen in public for the first time with wife Autumn since the couple announced their separation last month. Their mother, the Princess Royal, has her Gloucestershire estate nearby and for them, like the general public in attendance, they appeared intent on making the most of this annual respite from ordinary life.
The aristocrats rubbed shoulders with the TV stars, City types and farmers, and despite the hygiene signs on every corner, by early evening, most had forgotten temporarily about the chaos
ground, there were no worries for Henderson once she landed over the last and she was always holding Sharjah comfortably. Darver Star was a further 3¾ lengths back in third with Cilaos Emery fourth.
“It’s a nice race isn’t,” said a slightly overwhelmed Henderson. He is also back ahead of Willie Mullins, who drew a first-day blank, as the meeting’s most successful trainer on 66 winners. “It goes back such a long time since the first one, which was 1985 [See You Then] so it’s quite a long time,” he said.
“She was always travelling and you were always quite pleased with where she was. Barry gave her a