Wisely or not, racing fans defied the coronavirus fears and turned out in numbers for the Cheltenham Festival.
The crowd for the fourth day of The Festival™ presented by Magners at Cheltenham today was 68859.
This compares to 71593 on the fourth day in 2019, which was a record.
Overall attendance at The Festival in 2020 was 251684, compared to a record total attendance of 266557 in 2019.
Reuters report that the sight of such large crowds assembled followed the British government’s decision on Thursday not to ban large gatherings, despite moving their response to the ‘delay’ phase.
Earlier the Premier League and Football League suspended all matches while the weekend’s Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland was also postponed.
Cheltenham provided extra hand sanitizer stations and extra toilet facilities in an attempt to contain any spread.
