City of Chelmsford | racingfotos.com
Chelmsford Racecourse will implement a Covid card as a condition of entry, and riders must also present photo identification.
“Due to the ongoing pandemic, the racecourse has decided to implement Covid passes as a condition of entry,” a notice from the racecourse read. “We have put these measures in place to protect our customers, our team, our local community and those involved in the sport.
“As an added safety measure, the racecourse will also implement ID as a condition of entry. This will be done by scanning a photo ID with the following accepted forms of ID: passport, driver’s license, any government or international issued photo card. This is a decision that the racecourse has not taken lightly, but we feel it is our duty to protect all who visit the racecourse. To do this, we want to make sure that all attendees are not on any lists that prohibit them from going to industry venues, sports grounds, and licensed facilities. ID scans on entry have also been introduced in response to the UK raising the terror threat to severe.
Nathan Holmes, Chelmsford’s commercial director, said that the Covid pass rollout was not related to the recent discovery of the new Covid strain Omicron – of which there was a case nearby – but rather something else. was made.
“The decision was made before the new variant came out – it was not a sensational reaction, we had been planning it for several weeks,” said Holmes. “Jockey doesn’t have a pass at the moment. We’re still looking to the horsemen to try to do something similar, but we’re not sure how that will work because there’s a lot of parties involved.
“We have spoken to riders about this and we have received quite mixed reactions, especially from older riders. We will certainly lose some people, but at the same time we think we will gain some because we are creating a safe environment for everyone to enter the race. As for how long we have to do this, we have four meetings left this year. After our last meeting, we had a three-week gap. Our thinking is we’ve played really well since coming out of the box, don’t spoil it. We also have some huge Christmas parties with up to 300 people coming in, this is rolling out as well, so we’ll tackle this phase first, then look at it over a three-week period. and see where we are. Hopefully then there will be better news coming from the government. ”
Not a subscriber? Click here to subscribe to PDF or daily alerts.
