The Cheltenham horse racing festival should probably not have been allowed to go ahead last month shortly before Britain went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Horse Racing Ireland CEO Brian Kavanagh has said.
Many Irish racing fans were among the average 60,000 spectators that attended each day of the four-day festival in the south of England from 10-13 March.
Three days later, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked people to stop frequenting public places and the country was then locked down on 23 March.
The UK government defended its decision to allow sporting events to go ahead at the time, including the Liverpool-Atletico Madrid Champions League game at Anfield, but Kavanagh said it might have been better if Cheltenham was