CHAMPION Co Antrim-born jockey Tony McCoy has moved to clarify remarks he made about the staging of the Cheltenham Festival in which he said "a lot of lives have been lost", insisting he was not blaming the race event for coronavirus deaths.
The former BBC Sports Personality of the Year and first jockey to earn over 4,000 wins was speaking to Good Morning Britain yesterday when the Moneyglass-born sportsman referred to racing at Cheltenham in March.
The four-day festival went ahead despite criticism that social distancing measures being introduced across the UK would be ignored at the racing event, with organisers The Jockey Club insisting it "promoted the latest public health advice and introduced a range of additional hygiene measures at the event including hundreds of hand sanitiser dispensers and extra washbasins".
McCoy, who has totalled 31 Cheltenham wins during his career, was asked about the decision to go ahead with the race festival, and told TV presenters: "I suppose in hindsight, it’s always easy isn’t it? With Cheltenham they were following at the time the government guidelines.
"They were the ones that had asked for advice. I suppose that will be the same when we stopped and when do we go back – the same people will be making decisions."
He added: "Look, the reality of it is that a lot of lives have been lost because of it. And who knows, when do we go back, is it too soon, or is it not too soon, if we lose more lives at the end of it all – I don’t know. Hindsight is a great thing – I think no one knows."
Don’t twist my words. I said “Lives have been lost” referring to Covid-19, not the Cheltenham Festival
— AP McCoy (@AP_McCoy) April 13, 2020
McCoy has since spoken out on social media to insist he did not mean that lives had been lost as a result of Cheltenham going ahead, insisting he was referring to coronavirus only as the cause of deaths.
"Don’t twist my words. I said "Lives have been lost" referring to Covid-19, not the Cheltenham Festival," the jockey tweeted.
