No crowds for Musselburgh new year meeting following new Scotland limit of 500

Musselburgh will lose all ticket sales and hospitality for its popular New Year's Day meeting after Scotland's first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced outdoor events will have their attendance capped at 500 for up to three weeks starting on December 26 in response to the latest chapter of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime minister Boris Johnson confirmed late on Tuesday afternoon that there would be no change to Covid restrictions in England before Christmas, but he said "the government will continue to monitor the data closely and will not hesitate to act after Christmas if necessary" – meaning that major racing fixtures across the holiday period could yet be subject to capacity limits or worse.

In a statement to the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said that the measures "were not proposed lightly" but that it was the cabinet's judgement that emerging staff shortages and experience garnered earlier in the pandemic meant there was a greater danger in waiting for complete data on the effects of the Omicron variant.

Musselburgh chief executive Bill Farnsworth said on Tuesday that new measures around hospitality combined with such a low cap on attendance at events meant that the meetings on January 1 and 3 would both have to be restricted to owners, with a potential crowd of 6,000 left disappointed.

"We were hoping for 1,000 people, which is pretty sparsely populated on a racecourse so were disappointed when it was 500," said Farnsworth.

Bill Farnsworth says that a seated crowd of 500 outdoors is not viable at Musselburgh in the middle of winterCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"But the worst news was that it has to be seated service. For us it is completely unviable to do that on New Year's Day.

"We can't imagine people will want to sit outside drinking on a picnic table on January 1. Staff costs double, sometimes treble, on New Year's Day and it barely washed its face doing table service for 1,000 people in the summer. Doing it for 500 people with double wages in the winter doesn't add up. So regrettably we're back behind closed doors. We were going to do 6,000 ticket sales and we were just about there, just a few hundred off selling out."

Farnsworth added: "We've got owners to look after and we want to make sure they have plenty of space, because omicron spreads very easily, so we're putting them in the hospitality stand, as we did during racing behind closed doors.

"It's hugely disappointing because New Year's Day is a big atmosphere."

Musselburgh will offer customers the choice of a full refund or the chance to roll over tickets to later fixtures.

Kelso is due to race on December 29, while the news will be a major blow to Ayr, which races on January 2

Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament: "We must also take some further steps to make the places where people might still gather as safe as possible, and that's why we are proposing some additional measures.

Nicola Sturgeon: making sports events 'essentially spectator-free'Credit: Stu Forster (Getty Images)

"This will effectively make spectator events, including football, essentially spectator-free over this three-week period, a situation similar to that in Wales from Boxing Day.

"None of these [measures] are being proposed lightly, but we do consider them necessary to help stem the increase in cases, safeguard health and protect the NHS and the economy while we complete and get the full effect of the booster programme."

Upcoming race meetings in Scotland

Wed Dec 29 Kelso
Sat Jan 1 Musselburgh
Sun Jan 2 Ayr
Mon Jan 3 Musselburgh (bank holiday)
Sun Jan 9 Ayr
Sun Jan 16 Kelso
Sat-Sun Feb 5-6 Musselburgh

Read more here

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