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Cheltz Fest 2021 Behind Closed Doors ?

charlie said:
As brutal as The Festival behind closed doors would be, making peace with that now is vastly preferable IMO to experiencing the 'will it won't it' that we had the week before Cheltenham this year.
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Yep, that's where I am. I've made peace with the idea it's likely there'll either be no crowd, or it'll be at levels that rule out non-members like myself. I'm as confident as you can be that the racing itself will go ahead, based on what we've seen throughout this 'situation' so far. As others say, racing going ahead is the main thing, we'll have a laugh one way or another but no racing is beyond a sickener to comprehend.
Anything else i'm seeing as a bonus. Hotels booked with free cancellation, ticket money ready to be parted with at a moments notice!

I still chuckle thinking about last year. I've seen queues for all sorts in life, but i've never seen 3 deep queues of men at sinks waiting to wash their hands!
 
Blow for Irish tracks as cap of 500 spectators for next 6 months.
I can see more Irish owners selling up or sending horses over here. Not good news for the sport at all. Hopefully things will change as Covid becomes more acceptable/manageable.
 
Buying a membership tonight. Only way I'll get in I fear. £530 is not what I banked on but I can't miss the Fez week especially after the year we've had.
 
Lobos said:
Buying a membership tonight. Only way I'll get in I fear. £530 is not what I banked on but I can't miss the Fez week especially after the year we've had.
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Unfortunately I think your probably right, just had an email for October meeting saying annual membership is one of the best ways to ensure you have priority entry, should restrictions still be in place.

You have to think there will be more members then admissions allowed, specially this year. Any tickets on general sale seem unlikely. Hopefully the situation gets better next year for March.
 
Willdunn99 said:
Unfortunately I think your probably right, just had an email for October meeting saying annual membership is one of the best ways to ensure you have priority entry, should restrictions still be in place.

You have to think there will be more members then admissions allowed, specially this year. Any tickets on general sale seem unlikely. Hopefully the situation gets better next year for March.
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I'm thinking possibly 20k max attendance. Likely to be a big buy up of memberships now so let's say 10k members. The remaining 10k will most likely go to Hospitality and Corporate leaving nothing on general sale. That's how I see it anyway. I think everyone who has a membership will be able to go should they want to.
 
I read earlier , that Warwick will be restricted to 500 people.
To be made up of Members , Hospitality , trainers / owners.
Probably no chance of any general public ticket sales.
Probably sounds a bit negative , but this is how i would see.
most of the near future meetings , with a limited capacity.
I was hoping to go to Newbury for the Ladbrokes Trophy.
But , pretty sure , it won't happen now.( for me ).
 
Huge week for racing with the Warwick and Newmarket pilots taking place.
Racing has proved it can take place safely with restricted numbers, if these events pass without incident it strengthens the case for racegoers to be allowed back albeit in lower numbers.
France continues to allow 5000 into racecourses and sports stadiums I'm struggling to find a reason why we can't get 1000 into a several acres of outdoor space when pubs, restaurants and public transport, all indoor environments, continue to operate with far less attention to social distancing....
 
Istabraq said:
Huge week for racing with the Warwick and Newmarket pilots taking place.
Racing has proved it can take place safely with restricted numbers, if these events pass without incident it strengthens the case for racegoers to be allowed back albeit in lower numbers.
France continues to allow 5000 into racecourses and sports stadiums I'm struggling to find a reason why we can't get 1000 into a several acres of outdoor space when pubs, restaurants and public transport, all indoor environments, continue to operate with far less attention to social distancing....
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I think the problem with having 5000 at racecourses, is the on-course bars being open.
If they were shut for alcohol, and have breath tests on the turnstiles, then I think the chances of football, racing etc getting larger crowds would go up dramatically.

The brits overall have proved incapable of handling alcohol in a pandemic - it’s embarrassing that we have so many tossers in our population, who only care about themselves. :devilish:
 
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Saxon Warrior said:
I think the problem with having 5000 at racecourses, is the on-course bars being open.
If they were shut for alcohol, and have breath tests on the turnstiles, then I think the chances of football, racing etc getting larger crowds would go up dramatically.

The brits overall have proved incapable of handling alcohol in a pandemic - it’s embarrassing that we have so many tossers in our population, who only care about themselves. :devilish:
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I hope so, alcohol at racecourses in a personal bugbear of mine, I hate the crowd it attracts, I hate the atmosphere it creates, I hate the stands being full of people who don't give a shit about racing. I've always thought the big racecourses could do with a separate no-alcohol stand/enclosure
 
aalowe9 said:
I hope so, alcohol at racecourses in a personal bugbear of mine, I hate the crowd it attracts, I hate the atmosphere it creates, I hate the stands being full of people who don't give a shit about racing. I've always thought the big racecourses could do with a separate no-alcohol stand/enclosure
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I also know I'm in the minority thinking this
 
That nonsense press conference/briefing didn’t sound great for getting fans into sports stadiums/racecourses. Saying it’s at least 6 months before we get on top of the virus now. That’s March.

Fully expect pubs and fans into sports stadiums/racecourses to be shut down this week.
 
Middle_Of_March said:
That nonsense press conference/briefing didn’t sound great for getting fans into sports stadiums/racecourses. Saying it’s at least 6 months before we get on top of the virus now. That’s March.

Fully expect pubs and fans into sports stadiums/racecourses to be shut down this week.
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Didn't they also say there would not be another lockdown? I think they will continue with restricted spectators with numbers increasing as we go along. Has to happen for these sports businesses to survive.
 
No point locking people down, more point in closing individual pubs or other places that ignore social distancing and track/trace rules- not allowing them to reopen until they can get things right.
 
Saxon Warrior said:
No point locking people down, more point in closing individual pubs or other places that ignore social distancing and track/trace rules- not allowing them to reopen until they can get things right.
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Agreed. Of course, it would help if Lady Hard(ly doing anyth)ing could get Serco to provide an approximation of a proper track/trace system.

By and large, it seems like house parties and domestic transmission are more to blame than activities in the hospitality industry.
 
Saxon Warrior said:
No point locking people down, more point in closing individual pubs or other places that ignore social distancing and track/trace rules- not allowing them to reopen until they can get things right.
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tbh, every hospitality venue I've been to has been all over it. The problem is afterwards it goes into Dido, Queen of Carnage's domains and falls into a black hole owned by Deloitte and Serco. You can't track and trace without wide scale mass testing - and one month into an ad campaign saying get tested we ran out
 
robith said:
tbh, every hospitality venue I've been to has been all over it. The problem is afterwards it goes into Dido, Queen of Carnage's domains and falls into a black hole owned by Deloitte and Serco. You can't track and trace without wide scale mass testing - and one month into an ad campaign saying get tested we ran out
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Scrap the efforts to track and trace, it was never going to work. Use the funds elsewhere.
 
Envoi Allen at 6/4 to win any race was the shortest price event for next year’s festival.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case.

Cheltenham to go ahead with only members is now clearly the shortest priced event (very) likely to happen.
 
EnvoyAllen said:
Envoi Allen at 6/4 to win any race was the shortest price event for next year’s festival.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case.

Cheltenham to go ahead with only members is now clearly the shortest priced event (very) likely to happen.
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If General sale happens it'll be minimal numbers and Best Mate only I reckon.
 
Lobos said:
Scrap the efforts to track and trace, it was never going to work. Use the funds elsewhere.
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Track and trace is the best documented way of dealing with an infectious disease. It has been used effectively to combat SARS, MERS and ebola across the world. It shouldn't be expensive - Vietnam which is a very poor country has an exceptionally effective system. We just bodged it because

a) we have politicians who don't believe in the power of the state and outsourced everything to their cronies
b) we didn't provide any incentive to stay at home. Germany and France's furlough and sick schemes are to last for 24 months. The govt delivers you food in Vietnam and China if you're covid positive. Here, you'll get kicked out of your house if you don't go to work
c) instead the government have been incentivising activities that increase infection vectors - namely reopening schools and try to bully people back to the office

It works, just not when it's run by this shower

And I'd worry about sending the funds elsewhere. Guy who runs a vet business got a £100m contract for PPE he didn't have and started trying to buy it off people on Linkedin!
 
Lobos said:
If General sale happens it'll be minimal numbers and Best Mate only I reckon.
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I’ll give you odds of 1/4 that unless you’re a member, you ain’t getting in at next year’s festival in a little shorter than 6 months time.

And in 3 months time those odds will look like the best bet of 2020.
 
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