Crowds unlikely at Geelong Cup racing club boss Daniel Salter says
Geelong Racing Club’s boss has given an update on if crowds will be possible at this year’s event as coronavirus restrictions ease in regional Victoria.
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DESPITE easing social restrictions it appears unlikely October’s Geelong Cup will be opened to the public.
Geelong Racing Club chief executive Daniel Salter said the club was still working to determine a final model to host the October 21 event.
“I can’t see any public being here. There’s a one per cent chance of that happening,” Mr Salter said.
“We still don’t know what protocols are going to be in place in five weeks time.
“With current restrictions of 10 people in a room it’s just not viable to do to anything at that level.
“We’d need to see a significant increase in what we can do. The restrictions are still to great at the moment.
“A crowd level of 100 or 200 is just not really viable. It would make it really difficult to determine who those people are who you would allow on course.
“We really need things to open up more before we make any final decisions.”
Under government protocols large events from November 23 are to be “treated on an individual basis based on requirements and epidemiology at the time.”
But progressing to that stage requires the state to be free of new COVID-19 cases for a fortnight.
Mr Salter said the GRC would discuss the Geelong Cup at a committee meeting in a “couple of weeks time.”
“The status quo hasn’t changed at the moment in that it’s highly unlikely we will have any crowds of great numbers.”
He said the event would proceed in a nine-race format with the main race to be held at 4pm.
Mr Salter was hopeful that UK-trained and 2019 Geelong Cup winner Prince Of Arran would return to this year’s event.
Originally published as Crowds unlikely at Geelong Cup racing club boss Daniel Salter says