BHA chair Annamarie Phelps has vowed to do everything in her power to get crowds back on track as soon as possible.
Phelps described the decision to scrap plans for the return of spectators from October 1, potentially for another six months, as “devastating” for racing.
However, she also suggested the projected ban on punters until the spring may prove to be a “backstop” measure which was far from set in stone.
Racing has staged two successful pilot racedays with crowds this month, at Doncaster and Warwick, before the Goverment reintroduced restrictions after a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Phelps said: “It was devastating news, I have to say – not just for those racecourses that had invested and prepared for the pilots … but to have them first of all delayed, and then the news this week, has been tragic.
“It puts us in a really quite perilous state. It is going to have a massive impact on the income to racecourses.
“We hope, and are assuming, we’ll be able to carry on behind closed doors throughout all this, but unless we get racegoers back on to racecourses, the losses to the racecourses are going to be an estimate of anything between £2 million and £4 million a month.
“We think we’ve probably lost £250 million to £300 million, possibly more, in the last 12 months for racecourses. It is a perilous situation.
“Without racegoers, it is perilous at all levels – and particularly for some of our top-level racing.”
Phelps said that the BHA would be making it’s case to the Goverment to ensure punters return as soon as possible.
She continued: “We’re going to work on it as hard as we can. I really, really hope (it isn’t six months) – we’ll do everything we can.
“Most importantly, we need to work with Government to find a way to get the racegoers back on the track.
“What we need to do is make sure we’re putting the case really strongly, which we are, that there is no evidence to show we’re increasing the transmission of the virus.
“We’re hoping that we can begin to work with Government to try to find some solutions to this in the shorter term, and we hope that six months is just a very long backstop and that we’ll be able to bring that forward.
“We’d like to ensure that Government are evaluating those (crowd) pilots properly, and making sure they didn’t lead to any transmission of infection.
“We don’t think there’s been any transmission on racecourses so far. It’s Government’s decision, and they’re not basing it as far as we can see on the science, of what happens on the racecourse.
“What they are more worried about, and what we all should be worried about, is what people are doing off the racecourse.
“I think they’re trying to encourage people to do the right thing. That may not seem fair on us, and I can see why people are really frustrated. I’m frustrated, we all are with that.”
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