Armed police will have a "permanent presence throughout the Cheltenham Festival for the first time, following a major security review since the Paris atrocities," according to Charles Sale of the London DAILY MAIL. With around 250,000 race-goers due at the course over the four days of National Hunt racing’s showcase meeting, "this is the biggest sporting event" in the U.K. since the terrorist attacks in France four months ago. And Gloucester Police is "taking no chances with security." In previous years, armed police vehicles "carried out random patrols during the Festival but they have never been parked at the race meeting for its duration." A Gloucester police spokesperson said, "Armed response officers will be deployed to this year's Festival at Cheltenham. ... We cannot confirm how many armed response vehicles or armed officers will be present as this is operationally sensitive."
AD SPACE: Cheltenham is taking commercialization of the Festival "to a new level by installing a football-ground-style advertising video wall inside the bend after the winning post." This improves the track's advertising opportunities -- "and could be extended elsewhere on the course." Meanwhile Cheltenham, without the advantage of football legislation, is "plagued by ticket touts working near the entrance" (DAILY MAIL, 3/14).
