AS the spread of the coronavirus continues, death numbers rise and a strict lockdown over Easter keeps us at home, Cheltenham again seems to be the subject of unmerited accusations for causing the spread of the virus.

A barely researched article in The Times in Britain last week with the title “Cheltenham ‘spread virus across the country’ – has been well quoted, even though no one in the piece actually said those words and the extent of the research was “one person wrote on Twitter” and “someone else replied…”

I can change my appearance and reappear on Twitter many times, in many different forms and say many things that can never be confirmed!

Officially, our chief medical officer Tony Holohan specifically said he had not seen any evidence through contact tracing that Cheltenham had increased the spread here.

But the bad publicity stays with Prof Paddy Mallon, expert in infectious diseases, speaking on TodayFM news on Thursday saying that this weekend “could be our Cheltenham”, if people did not obey the new travel restrictions put in place.

Except that no one disobeyed orders as there was no medical advice against travel to the Festival and few really accepted the potential dangers then, when pubs, schools and shops were open here.

We know now British authorities were too slow in cancelling large gatherings – no greater example of the carelessness than PM Boris Johnson being hospitalised with the virus. And of course he didn’t attend Cheltenham.

I know someone who sadly died from Covid-19 but caught it visiting his son in London five weeks ago, something he never had a second thought about doing.

Continued finger pointing serves no purpose now but it bears repeating that those who travelled on Monday, March 9th, when there were no restrictions issued by any of the health or government authorities, do not deserve to now be accused of neglience.

Life was still pretty much as normal the weekend before the Festival began. Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights to Ireland from Italy were only halted on the Wednesday, the same day the first death was reported here.

Statistics also supplied by the Department of Health also show that popular skiing resort Austria was an early hot spot just as much as the UK was.

Cheltenham unfortunately fell in the week when everything began to change. After the Taoiseach’s address from Washington on the Thursday, schools were then closed. The Irish still in Cheltenham for Gold Cup day were in focus.

Resumption

But as we look for a date when racing will resume, we should be careful of not giving an impression of fiddling on while Rome burned. It will not serve us well. Because we can doesn’t mean we should, as public support may not be so forthcoming.

If it is June when it is safe to resume, we really don’t need a Guineas to have a good flat season. Royal Ascot will most likely be lost, unless a substitute meeting can be put on in July.

It’s difficult to drum up any desire to watch two-year-olds race when you see an image of an elderly man peering in the window of a nursing home, his last glimpse of his dead brother and not able to carry his coffin. That photograph from this week killed any desire I had to see Royal Ascot, even though like many, I wanted Cheltenham to get through, and thought we should continue while we could.

Comments that “we have to get the show back on the road” do not sit well in the middle of the deaths, disruptions and job losses, even if racing staff too will have to endure tough times.

Goodwill and public interest does a lot to fund the sport. With comments that we must all “take the hit” for now for the greater good, racing may be better taking a pull for a little time.