Racegoers won’t be deterred if vaccine passports are introduced for a day at the races given the continuing rise in cases
Excitement mingled with a nagging sense of déjà vu here on Friday as spectators flooded back into jump racing’s spiritual home for the first time since March 2020. Nineteen months on from a Gold Cup week that came to symbolise the foot-dragging on the road to lockdown, Covid cases are on the rise once again and the echoes were difficult to avoid.
Around 12,000 spectators were expected at Cheltenham on Friday and perhaps 16,000 for the second day of the meeting on Saturday, less than a quarter of the 68,859 who packed the grandstands and carpeted the enclosures as Al Boum Photo won the Gold Cup on 13 March 2020. The brief cheer as the tapes went back for the opening race was far removed from the famous roar that sends them on their way at the Festival.
