Our team visit York ahead of the Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival and get the inside track on how preparations are going.
Think York Racecourse and your mind immediately turns to glorious summer days, huge crowds, vibrant atmospheres and top-class racing.
In 2020 only the latter remains.
Like every venue up and down the land the team at the Knavesmire have had to work within the guidelines allowing the resumption of racing during the covid-19 pandemic.
It means tight restrictions on attendees, rigid protocols on sanitization and safety, and a very different experience.
Racing has become a television product, the paying public not being granted access. It has had a massive effect on income streams, sponsorships and prize-money.
It’s horse racing – but not as we know it.
I attended the Sunday meeting on July 26th. It was a surreal experience, watching the action from the weighing room steps. Owners were onsite – but separate from the racing professionals.
Very few trainers were there – two of whom, Charlie Fellowes and William Easterby, finding two vantage points to follow the Test match on the giant screen in what on a normal day is the owners’ suite.
The team worked frantically to make everyone happy, praise was forthcoming for the experience enjyed by stable staff and owners. All agreed the on-track experience was as good as it could be.
The action on the track was thrilling but what was missing was the atmosphere, the buzz, it’s what York has in spades. It makes the place.
Our team visited the racecourse in the build-up to the forthcoming Welcome To Yorkshire Ebor Festival, their showpiece event, to get the thoughts of their management team on their season so far and details on the work going on behind the scenes.
Enjoy the video.
