No coaching calendar is complete without a booking or two to Cheltenham Races. Richard Sharman was on hand to see if the number of racegoers, using PCVs of all shapes and sizes, returned to pre-pandemic numbers
In a strange turn of circumstances, it would appear that Cheltenham Races has been the event to bookmark the start and the end of the pandemic having a major impact on our lives by means of Covid-19 regulations in England. In 2020, Cheltenham Races started on Tuesday 10 March and ran until Gold Cup day on Friday 13 March when 68,859 racegoers descended on the Gloucestershire town. This was three days before Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that “now is the time for everyone to stop non-essential contact and travel” – and just ten days later the lockdown was imposed.
The 2020 event was contentious because there were concerns about it going ahead when on 5 March 100 people in the UK had tested positive for the virus. However, the Government allowed the races to go ahead and the area went on to see a spike in infections after the event. I was at the 2020 event, a review of which can be found in issue 1436, and at this stage the term social distancing and the wearing face coverings was not a thing, or even on the horizon. It is hard to believe now that just a few days later the seriousness of the situation would become clear. And the rest is, hopefully, history.
[…]
By subscribing you will benefit from:
- Operator & Supplier Profiles
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Lastest News
- Test Drives and Reviews
- Legal Updates
- Route Focus
- Industry Insider Opinions
- Passenger Perspective
- Vehicle Launches
- and much more!
