Could Glorious Goodwood be used to trial crowds returning to elite sport events?

A trial allowing people back into major sporting events may take place on the final day of Glorious Goodwood.
The final day of Glorious Goodwood is always a great spectacle - will this year's include some racecourse members being allowed in to watch? Picture: Tommy McMillanThe final day of Glorious Goodwood is always a great spectacle - will this year's include some racecourse members being allowed in to watch? Picture: Tommy McMillan
The final day of Glorious Goodwood is always a great spectacle - will this year's include some racecourse members being allowed in to watch? Picture: Tommy McMillan

With only 12 days until their festival week kicks off, Goodwood bosses still don’t know whether they will be able to allow any racecourse members into the five days of top-clas flat racing action.

But they are holding out hope that on the final day, on Saturday, August 1, the government will allow them to admit a set number of spectators in what would be a test for crowds to return to elite sport events.

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Adam Waterworth, MD of sport at Goodwood, said planning the festival had been ‘like herding cats’ – they’d had to work on everything from Plan A to Plan Z and still didn’t know what would be allowed.

It looks unlikely any members will be allowed in on the first four days, though even that has not been ruled out.

Waterworth said: “The racing side of things is coming along nicely. It is set to be an excellent week’s racing with the likes of Stradivarius and Battaash coming back but as to whether any members get in, we genuinely still don’t know!”

All 38 races over the five days will be shown either on ITV or Racing TV – and ITV are likely to show five a day from Tuesday to Friday.

Get the latest on the festival build-up on this website in the coming days