Organisers to continue with Cheltenham Festival as planned on government advice

Tonight’s Premier League game between Manchester City and Arsenal may have been postponed due to coronavirus fears but the message from Cheltenham this morning is the remainder of the festival will go ahead as planned.

“We had a fantastic first day here yesterday with seven brilliant races, which reminds us about what the sport is really about,” Ian Renton, regional director of the course, said.

“All the measures we put in place were well used by racegoers (on day one) and we were topping up our hand sanitiser gel stations all day long. The racegoers heeded the advice we gave to ensure that hygiene was kept at a maximum.

“The attendance being down (just over 7,000) was not a surprise. The last fortnight ticket sales have been very quiet. We had tremendous sales until then and I was delighted to see 60,000 people here yesterday in an atmosphere of such good racing, so it was a good start.

“We have been liaising with the government throughout this; their advice has been extremely helpful. We've been following that advice to the letter and we will continue to do so until the conclusion of the festival.”