The Welsh Grand National on Dec. 27 and Musselburgh's New Year's Day meeting will be held behind closed doors after the Welsh and Scottish governments tightened restrictions in response to the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. All sporting events in Wales from Boxing Day will be staged behind closed doors, while in Scotland outdoor sporting events are limited to 500 people.
“We've had up to 12,000 people for the Welsh National meeting in recent years, an average of around 10,000,” said Chepstow's Executive Director Phil Bell. “Hospitality had been sold out for about a month. Most of the racecourse was ready to go. We've been having marquees erected for the last three weeks plus all the portable toilets, outside bars and food outlets. It's been a month's worth of hard work in terms of putting the site ready which is now going to go to waste.
“The one thing about the financial impact is we are talking to the Welsh Government about a compensation package. We've been asked to supply our cost and revenue losses to them and that's going into the mix for a decision.”
Musselburgh General Manager Bill Farnsworth said, “It is very unfortunate as this is one of our best and biggest racedays and one of our most popular, attended by a sell-out crowd. However, we all must play our part in keeping people safe and in light of the latest government guidance on the Omicron variant, we feel the responsible decision is to make this a 'BCD' event with only annual members, horse owners, trainers and staff in attendance.
“On a positive note, we hope that the restrictions will break the spread of the Omicron variant so that we can look forward to the Scottish Festival Trials Weekend on Feb. 5 and 6. All ticket holders for the cancelled racedays on Jan. 1 and 3 will be able to transfer to future race days or will receive a full refund. Racecourse staff will endeavour to process all transfers and refunds as quickly as possible.”
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