‘Racing to carry on behind closed doors’

By AFP
March 17, 2020

LONDON: Racing in Britain is to carry on but behind closed doors, the sport’s regulatory body, the British Horseracing Authority, said on Monday. The sport attracted criticism for allowing the showpiece Cheltenham Festival to go ahead last week with over 250,000 spectators attending despite the coronavirus outbreak.

Many of the Cheltenham racegoers were Irish, which provoked a social media backlash in Ireland, but racing authorities say they were following British government advice in maintaining the meeting.