We weren't angry, just disappointed: Goodwood rue missed opportunity to welcome crowds back to sport

A stunning view - but no-one there to enjoy it: the scene at Goodwood after the PM axed their plans to allow 5,000 members and guests into the final day of Glorious / Picture: Sam Stephenson

Many figures in racing felt Goodwood had every last detail in place to make the crowd trial a safe success and pave the way for racing and other sports to start welcoming back fans.

But PM Boris Johnson denied them the chance to prove a socially distanced crowd could be accommodated when he announced on Friday – 23 hours before the gates were due to open to Goodwood members and guests – that all sport crowd pilots were being halted because of worries over the coronavirus infection rate rising.

Goodwood’s managing director of sport Adam Waterworth said he and all the racecourse team who’d worked day and night to put plans in place regarded it as ‘a massive shame’.

“The racing throughout our festival week was fantastic but it will always be tinged with the disappointment we felt on Friday when the pilot was pulled.

“We’d shown to those we needed to that we could do it, and safely, and I really think it would have gone well.

“The rest of the week, with all the restrictions in place for everyone here, went smoothly and there’s no reason to think the Saturday wouldn’t have been the same.”

Those who were at Goodwood at the end of the week noted row upon row of distanced seating that would have accommodated the 5,000, along with all the signs and ground markings making it clear who could go where.

Waterworth said planning for Saturday cost Goodwood a six-figure sum.

But he insisted it was not about the money in a year when the profit and loss sheet had turned into a loss-only sheet.

And he said: “We weren’t angry, just disappointed.

“Once the announcement had come, there was never any way it could be changed.”

If the government is bold enough to reinstate plans for sport crowd pilots after the current planned fortnight’s delay, there’s a slim chance Goodwood could again be selected to welcome people.

Their Celebration Mile Saturday on August 29 could be seen as another big sporting occasion where a crowd trial would be useful – and Waterworth said if that happened, staff would again be ready to pull out all the stops to make it happen.