Cheltenham to Go Behind Closed Doors

Racing at Cheltenham will be forced to go behind closed doors after Gloucestershire was one of many regions to have tier restrictions tightened in an announcement by health secretary Matt Hancock Dec. 23.

Almost half of the betting shops in the United Kingdom will be required to be closed on Dec. 26 after Hancock announced six million more people in the east and southeast of England will enter Tier 4 after Christmas Day, with a number of other areas moving up to Tier 2 or Tier 3.

There will be no racegoers on course in Britain or Ireland Dec. 26 after Wincanton's meeting was forced to go behind closed doors with Somerset moving into Tier 3, while there will also not be a crowd at Fontwell Dec. 28.

Gloucestershire will go from Tier 2 to Tier 3 from 12:01 a.m. Dec. 26 and, with no crowd now allowed at Cheltenham's New Year's Day fixture, there are inevitable concerns over the likelihood of racegoers at the festival in March.

Around 2,000 spectators attended each day of Cheltenham's two-day International meeting this month, all of whom were owners and annual members, and ticket sales for next Friday's fixture were due to open at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning but were postponed as concerns rose over a potential change from Tier 2 in Gloucestershire.

Ian Renton, the Jockey Club's regional director responsible for Cheltenham, expressed his disappointment at the news and does not foresee much change for Trials Day at the track Jan. 30.

Renton said: "It's disappointing but we had anticipated that over the last 24 hours or so. It's a shame for our racegoers who were looking forward to a day's racing on New Year's Day.

"Looking at Trials Day it's difficult to envisage a significant uplift between now and then, but things have changed from week to week and sometimes day to day."

The festival is 12 weeks away and Renton added: "It's only two and a half months until March, so we'll have to wait and see."

Suffolk, which includes Newmarket, will be moved to Tier 4 in addition to Oxfordshire, Sussex, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hampshire Dec. 26.

Bristol, Swindon, Isle of Wight, New Forest, Cheshire, and Warrington were all escalated to Tier 3, while Cornwall and Herefordshire are moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2.

That last-named amendment means the maximum crowd permitted at Hereford's meeting Jan. 2 is halved to 2,000, but the course's executive director Rebecca Davies anticipates not meeting the full demand given the general uncertainty.

Davies said: "We're going into Tier 2 and other areas going into higher tiers has knocked out a significant proportion of people who bought tickets but now can't come, which is the best part of 350 ticket sales so far.

"The change in tiers for many areas will impact on our crowd numbers, but we'll revert to staging racing like we've done successfully in a Tier 2 status for our last two meetings and make the best we can of a bad situation.

"We can have a maximum crowd of 2,000 people now and if the demand is there we'll cater for it, but my gut feeling is demand won't be that high as there's a lot of uncertainty around the country for obvious reasons and a lot of people may decide to watch from home if they were previously thinking about coming."

The Dec. 23 announcement was the latest blow for the betting and racing industry, with approximately 3,400 of the 6,900 betting shops in the UK set to be closed by Dec. 26.

A spokesperson for the Betting and Gaming Council said: "We fully support the determination of the UK government and the devolved administrations to fight the spread of COVID-19 and protect our NHS.

"The decision to put more areas in Tier 4 means many more betting shops will have to close. This is another disappointment for our staff and customers, but we hope to be able to reopen safely as soon as possible."

The latest figures as of Dec. 23 showed a further 39,237 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK—an all-time high—with the number of deaths rising by 744, taking the death toll since March 2 to 69,790 within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test.

Hancock said two cases of another new variant of coronavirus had been detected from people who had traveled from South Africa over the past few weeks, with the cases and their close contacts isolating.

Speaking at the Dec. 23 coronavirus briefing, Hancock said: "We've seen case rates rise in some of the places close to where the current Tier 4 restrictions are. It's therefore necessary to put more of the east and southeast of England into Tier 4. We're also taking action in the southwest where there are early signs of the new variant and where cases are rising."

He added: "This is not news that anyone wants to deliver and I'm truly sorry for the disruption it causes but I think people know how important it is that we take decisions like this to keep people safe and protect the NHS."