PRESS RELEASE
2 December 2020
After a lengthy process St Pat’s will be racing in 2021 with the allocated date being Saturday 13 March.
With so many restrictions in place the committee has been working on a budget based on reduced crowd numbers and the cost of complying to these restrictions at front of mind.
As it stands the COVID-19 conditions include the following;
- All patrons must be seated
- All tickets must be pre-sold none can be sold at the gate
- Reduced numbers which currently sits at 25% of normal attendance figures
- COVID-19 Marshalls to be employed.
- COVID-19 plan implemented
- Social distancing must be practiced at all times.
Patrons will be allowed to leave their seats to get a drink, purchase food, place a bet and use the toilet facilities.
As like the rest of the country we are hopeful that by March 2021 some of these conditions may be relaxed but right now this is what the committee has to work with.
Our decision was based on the realisation that Broken Hill needs to have an event to work towards from a social aspect and stage an event that will bring people to our region in short we as a committee have a responsibility to stage St Pat’s next year.
The racing side has changed where Racing NSW Country advised we cut our program from 8 races to 6 based on the number of horses in work the other factor we need to consider in the lead up to race day is that 80% of our runners hail from SA & Victoria so fingers crossed no more border closures otherwise we will be in a precarious position.
We have had an amazing response from our sponsors, corporate backers and our life patron Steve Radford who are all supporting us in staging St Pats 2021 I must mention the racecourse trust who have generously waived a large part of our hire fee for next year in a show of solidarity and community goodwill.
We will soon via media outlets and our Facebook page be advertising our hospitality packages.
Thank you all let’s roll on into 2021 and a better one for all.
