Horseracing execs are to "restrict alcohol at some of the highlights of the sporting calendar in an attempt to curb the antisocial behaviour and drunkenness that has tarnished recent meetings," according to Mark Souster of the LONDON TIMES. Racegoers at this year’s Cheltenham Festival "will be restricted to buying four alcoholic drinks at a time, in the first step of a policy being introduced by the Jockey Club." Every public bar "will have a water point, free bottles of water will be available as racegoers leave at the end of the day and complimentary bars in corporate hospitality boxes will shut earlier." The same limit "will be enforced at key events at the club’s other courses, which include 14 of Britain’s best-known tracks, among them Aintree, the home of the Grand National, and Epsom, which stages the Derby." The measure is being "introduced initially at the Gloucestershire course, which attracts a crowd of 260,000 over the four days of the showpiece event." The second day of last year’s festival was "marred by newspaper photographs of footballers getting drunk, women baring their breasts and two people urinating into beer glasses." That "prompted a clampdown at the festival, which is Britain’s fourth best-attended sporting event." Only Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and the grand prix "attract bigger crowds." Cheltenham will also stop “making a virtue” in pre-festival publicity of the amount of drink consumed. The '15 publicity said that 265,000 pints of Guinness, 120,000 bottles of wine and 20,000 bottles of champagne were drunk (LONDON TIMES, 2/13).
