Horse Racing

Kentucky Governor: Need To See Virus Slow Down Before Considering Spectatorless Racing


Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear echoed the sentiments of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s racing dates committee in his daily address on Friday: It’s too soon to start planning for the return of live racing to the state.

“It’s going to take as long to defeat this virus as it takes,” said Beshear at his usual 5 p.m. COVID-19 update. “We’re talking about some term of months. We’re not talking about some term of years, but the moment we start trying to say it’s x days away is the moment people start relaxing on the social distancing, we see the spike, and ultimately we lose more people because of it.”

Beshear was among the first state governors to issue executive orders closing restaurant dining rooms, schools, and non-essential businesses in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. Much of his daily status updates are pleas for citizens to observe social distancing guidelines and stay home unless they are seeking essential supplies or medical care. So far, Kentucky’s numbers on coronavirus positives and deaths would indicate those restrictions have been effective.

Beshear was asked whether it would be possible to return to live racing with no spectators, given that other states are continuing their meets with no fans in attendance.

“At least as long as we are seeing an escalation [of cases], you would still have groups of people that would have to coming together to make that happen,” he said. “It would be the same thing as the NBA, which is cancelled right now. While there might be a point, hopefully when we see cases going down then that’s something we can consider, right now we shouldn’t be getting people together for any reason whatsoever.”

Keeneland announced March 16 that it would cancel its spring meet and April Sale, and Churchill Downs pushed back the Kentucky Derby the following day.

 





READ NEWS SOURCE

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.