Scottish tracks to press case for resumption in meeting with sports minister

Scottish Racing hopes to take an important step towards resumption when it is involved in talks with sports minister Joe Fitzpatrick on Tuesday.

The umbrella organisation that represents the country's five tracks will join bodies from football and rugby in a discussion on the phased return after shutdown.

With Scottish Racing's manager Delly Innes furloughed, Kelso chief executive Jonathan Garratt will speak for the sport, and he hopes the Scottish government will mirror the Westminster administration's attitude to a resumption.

"Delly Innes had done a superb job fostering good relations with the Scottish Parliament and the invitation to this meeting has come out of her work in developing those," Garratt said on Monday.

Jonathan Garratt (right) will represent Scottish RacingCredit: David Carr

"The outline of the invitation was we'd give an update on the situation and the impact of Covid-19 on our sport and the challenges it has created, then the bulk of the discussion will be focused on the phased reintroduction of sport and what conditions would need to be in place for that to happen safely.

"I'll tell him [Fitzpatrick] about the impact on individuals and horses - most of them are still in training and have to be looked after, so inevitably that means there are a lot of staff who are still working in slightly difficult circumstances."

The last racing in Scotland took place on March 16 at Kelso, which staged a meeting behind closed doors on the eve of the nationwide shutdown.

"I'll tell him [Fitzpatrick] about the five Scottish racecourses that aren't able to race and are losing fixtures at a rate of knots," Garratt said. "If you lose those events you lose a huge percentage of your economic activity so it is a severe shock to the system - as it is to all parts of the economy.

"We want to establish a route back to work, the sooner we can get some activity back on courses the sooner we'll be able to earn revenue and feed that through to the rest of the sport and its suppliers.

"We don't want to do anything different from the rest of the UK but I can share with him some of the detail which is being planned by the BHA and the other stakeholders for the resumption of racing and we'd expect Scotland to play a full part in that. We very much want it to recommence in Scotland at the same time as in the rest of the UK," he added.

"Nobody wants to be dogmatic in this situation and nobody wants to wed themselves to specific plans but it's right to have a framework in which decisions are made and very broadly the signal is that the Scottish government would like the four nations to be moving forward together.

"It is a devolved nation with a devolved process and it's possible that if the Westminster government stalled significantly or the Scottish government was very uncomfortable at the pace of developments in England they could take a different view. But broadly they're keen to agree a way forward where all four nations move at the same speed and that's something that we welcome."

Garratt believes Kelso's experience of racing behind closed doors points the way to its being a feasible way for the sport to operate when racing resumes.

"We had to put everything together very quickly but people generally complied very well and things went smoothly," he said.

"Things have been put in place subsequently that we've learned about - I don't think we had even coined the phrase social distancing then but now it would seem perfectly normal and easy to take on board."

The BHA does not believe the delay of an announcement from government on how to plot a course out of lockdown is a threat to the hoped-for resumption of racing. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to address the nation on Sunday, three days later than had originally been anticipated.

The Racing Post reported May 15 was a likely starting point if this week's update provides the go-ahead for a return to action behind closed doors, but the BHA stressed it has never put a date on the sport's potential comeback and is more concerned about the content of the plan than the timing of its announcement.

More to read:

Racing working towards Friday week resumption following positive meetings

BHA reveals potential big-race schedule if racing is able to resume in May

HRI anxiously waits for government to provide clarity on Irish racing's position

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