Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Pandemic may rein in Canterbury Cup and show week with plan to shut public out for first time in 117 years
27 Sep, 2021 02:42 PM4 minutes to read
For the first time in 117 years the public may be shut out of Canterbury's annual Cup and Show Week. Photo / Supplied
By: Anna Leask
Anna Leask is a senior reporter for the New Zealand Herald
anna.leask@nzherald.co.nz@AnnaLeask
Covid-19 restrictions may mean Canterbury horse racing's biggest week of the year could be closed to most punters for the first time in 117 years.
While organisers have confirmed today racing will go ahead - it cannot promise the public will be allowed to attend.
Addington Raceway CEO Brian Thompson said this afternoon that Addington Cup Week would be going ahead but the public would be shut out entirely unless the region was moved down to level 1 restrictions.
At alert level 2, events can go ahead but with restrictions.
Events and event facilities — for example, stadiums, cinemas and casinos can have a maximum of 100 people in any indoor or outdoor defined space.
Addington Cup Week 2021 kicks off with the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup Day on Tuesday November 9.
The Show Day Races are scheduled for Friday November 12.
Tickets were scheduled to go on sale this week but have been put on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Thompson said the decision to hold off was due to a lack of certainty that the venue will be able to be open to the public.
"The races will still go ahead, but if the country is still under mass gathering restrictions it will not be possible to hold Cup Week as a publicly accessible event," he said.
Cup Day at Addington Raceway 2020. Photo / NZME
"We are planning for an alert level 2 event, where we can safely host the racing industry in 100 person groups in different parts of our facilities, with the ability to scale-up if we move to alert level 1 with no restrictions on mass gatherings, by the 19th of October.