Royal Ascot will take place behind closed doors if it is able to go ahead on the original dates. Has no one joined the dots from the news about the Guineas and Derby meetings being cancelled on their original dates? Are they going to sneak Royal Ascot in first, and then have the Guineas at a later date, with the Derby to follow somewhere else along the way? What planet are some people living on? Just as well we are not in a real war, with the clowns we have trying to get by with selfish Jigsaw Puzzle thinking like this. Just to spell it out for Guy Henderson. The Derby meeting has been cancelled from 5th and 6th of June. Even if they held the meeting on 12th and 13th June by delaying only one week, that would leave Royal Ascot due to start just three days later on 16th June. Answers on a postcard to:- https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/998/529/094.jpg
Agree There is no way Royal Ascot can go ahead on schedule with hardly any preparation races for such important Group contests
If, say, the Guineas and then Derby go back 2 weeks then Royal Ascot can go back 2 weeks, Lots of decisions needed for these meetings though. Does Ascot reduce back to 3 days? Is the Newmarket Guineas meeting just one day? Is Epsom one day? You can't have thousands of stable staff arriving in Berkshire for 4 days. They should run it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday to reduce human traffic in and out of the racecourse. I think Charley Johnston's note was sensible. And he was right to say you can't have top races regionalised.' As far as I know the 1939 St Leger was the only Classic lost in WW2.
Ascot are talking about the meeting going ahead on the Original dates. They are not yet dealing with the concept of a delayed Ascot. That is why I pointed out the obvious flaw in their statement, given that the Guineas and Derby meetings had already been postponed.
Got to get normal racing back before considering the big festivals Going back to the Racing hubs, be surprised if Newcastle is not one of the tracks used and they say they are ready to go meeting all safety/isolation requirements at 48hrs notice
Ireland's lockdown until May 5th makes it difficult for them to return before mid-May and has a negative knock-on effect on the UK. I notice Germany is talking about a planned return sooner than that. AOB must be fuming and will be plenty upset if Varadkar bans him from running horses in the UK. Maybe Leo has had a win double on Pinatubo and Quadrilateral.
Just anecdotal evidence, one of our horses was kicked in the field last week and our vets the ones that attend on course at Newmarket wouldn’t come out ,only for life or death. I can’t see racing resuming in the near future.