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Insurance set to cover abandonment12th March 2008
Insurance cover will soak up much of the millions of pounds of losses being faced by Cheltenham racecourse because of the abandonment of day two of the Festival, management said on Wednesday.
Lost income from corporate customers, paying racegoers, trade stands, shops, bookmakers and the myriad of food and drink outlets at Prestbury Park was not quantified in the immediate aftermath of the shock announcement, but the impact is expected to be substantial.
Edward Gillespie, managing director at Cheltenham, said: "We have an insurance programme in place, the vagaries of which have yet to be fully examined. We hope that the next two days' racing will offset some of the costs that we will have to refund, such as income from ticket sales.
"We can't put a figure on the cost of the abandonment as we are concentrating on running the two days up ahead.
"No advance warning of the dangers to racing was given on Tuesday evening, despite management being aware of the potential for high winds and with damage already evident in the tented village."
Defending the course's approach to keeping the public informed, Gillespie added:
"We did not have enough hard information to share.
"Yesterday evening what we were looking at was that we needed an improvement in conditions to be able to race. We felt sufficient time would be allowed in the morning and we had seen improvement from Monday night to Tuesday morning, when expectations for wind speeds were lowered by 10-15mph. You get more certainty over conditions the closer you get to an event and we have been here before 5am for the past two mornings. We have wind monitors and a helicopter."
Green-belt planning guidelines make it a "very major planning challenge" to replace temporary structures with permanent buildings, according to Gillespie, in response to the damage that ended any prospects of racing on Wednesday:
"The sheer investment to provide permanent buildings would be difficult to justify."
However he hinted at potential plans for more robust structures: "The greenbelt, as it happens, is up for review and consultation at the moment. It is a subject that we shall now take forward because it is ridiculous in the 21st Century that you lose a day's sport at the value that it is because it just blows a gale."
The hospitality tent alongside the racecourse was totally flattened by the high winds