Horse racing could return in June!

About two months after the last racing action in Britain, there’s hope that fixtures could finally return in June.

The last races in Britain were at Wetherby and Taunton on March 17 before the suspension of fixtures owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, racing officials have worked round-the-clock for a resumption of racing.  With the question on when horse racing is back now answered, SBO.net will have the best horse racing offers for you to claim.

An official at British Horseracing Authority has been quoted saying he’s “incredibly confident” that the sport will get the go-ahead even if it’s at the last minute.

When answering questions about future plans for racing, Brant Dunshea, the chief regulatory officer of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) expressed his confidence that the work they had put in was enough to impress the government and get the go-ahead for a June resumption.

“I’m incredibly confident that we will be racing on June 1,” Dunshea said during the interview on RacingTV’s Luck On Sunday show.

“We can’t control the government’s decision but we’re incredibly confident and working hard and planning towards June 1 being our resumption date and we’re all very excited about that.” He added.

Reports of such earlier resumption of racing in May suffered turned out to be false starts after the government’s road map or easing restrictions on professional sport indicated there would be no elite sport in England until at least after June 1.

This show of confidence on a resumption of racing comes despite earlier remarks by the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, who seemed to favour a mid-June resumption.  Dowden said this date was a fair target for elite sports resumption behind closed doors.

The French Racing Resumption Debacle

What’s more, there have been concerns over what happened in France after a failed attempt at post-COVID-19 resumption. The racing resumption at ParisLongchamp was overshadowed by closure after barely as part of a government decree suspending racing in areas severely affected by Covid-19.

The red zones identified by the government meant most of the racecourses, including Longchamp, Chantilly and Auteuil were shut once again If this was the model BHA was hoping to emulate, it had failed spectacularly.

Going ahead with the Fixtures

The BHA’s officials’ latest remarks have fuelled confidence in the racing industry that finally some racing action is on the way, albeit without spectators.

Earlier, the British Horseracing Authority had announced Newcastle would host the comeback race post-COVID 19 behind closed doors. There’s now hope the earlier released provisional timetable for fixtures starting with the all-weather at Newcastle on June 1 would go ahead.

Other races in the provisional timetable were June 6 and 7 for The 2000 and 1000 Guineas with the Royal Ascot retaining its traditional slot in Mid-June.

On July 4, the association had pencilled the Derby and Oaks on the same day.  There were further details for the first week of racing action in the fixtures released by the cross-industry Resumption of Racing Group.

On June 2, there will be racing at Newcastle and Kempton, with Kempton and Yarmouth racing on June 3. The next day June 4 will see racing at Newcastle and Newmarket. June 5 racing will be at Lingfield and Newmarket with the two race tracks also in action the next day June 6 in addition to Newcastle.

The June 7 Fare will be hosted by Haydock, Lingfield and Newmarket while Chelmsford, Haydock and Lingfield will see some racing action on June 8.

Leveraging Racing Unique Circumstances

However, Dunshea’s confidence comes from horse racing’s overall uniqueness compared to other professional sports. He posited that unlike other sports, horse racing is a rural-based sport which utilizes the outdoors both for training and racing. This uniqueness lowers the risk in regards to Covid-19 compared to contact sports such as football and rugby.

“I’m very, very comfortable that our sport is being seen as different to contact sports by the government,” the BHA official said. This statement underlies the belief that the sport’s unique circumstances will play a big part in influencing the government’s decision to allow racing to resume in June.

Even with the government’s approval, there will be still challenges when it comes to adherence to new guidelines. For a start, the timing will be tight considering the directive will be given at the last week of May leaving only a few days to the first fixture at Newcastle on June 1. The safety protocols published by BHA were published recently, and the racing community is already implementing structures to implement these.

When later appearing at Sky Sports Racing, Dunshea said he hoped the government would at least give the racing community a few days’ notice on guidelines going to the next phase.

For now, all eyes are on the government’s directive that will come just a few days to the tentative first day of racing at Newcastle.