CHICHESTER, ENGLAND - JULY 28: General views on day one of the Qatar Goodwood Festival at Goodwood Racecourse on July 28, 2015 in Chichester, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Qatar Goodwood Festival)
The racecourse is enhancing its security for “all future fixtures” following an “extensive review” of the fight involving around 50 people on 5 May.
Sussex Police will now be present at every raceday and all members of the Goodwood security teams will wear high-visibility clothing.
Sniffer dogs, which have previously been used at certain fixtures, will be at every fixture and there will be an added push to encourage racegoers to use amnesty drug bins.
“We have conducted a thorough and extensive review of everything that happened at our first fixture, of our existing policies and held a detailed consultation with our safety advisory group and Sussex Police,” said general manager Alex Eade.
“We have also been working with the Racecourse Association and our other Large Independent Racecourse colleagues to ensure that we are part of the industry-wide crackdown on anti-social behaviour.”
Random bag searches will continue to take place at all entrances and anyone found with drugs on them will be evicted.
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Goodwood already has a strict ID policy at its bars. The “four-pint rule”, where visitors cannot buy more than four pints on each trip to the bar, will be introduced and free water “hydration stations” will be available on every bar.
“We have concluded that we will make our security teams more visible,” added Mr Eade.
“We have changed some personnel and the composition of our rapid response teams as well as taking even stronger measures to discourage drug use and excessive alcohol consumption.
“Sussex Police have agreed to have a presence at each of our future fixtures and we continue to work with them on deploying other covert and overt methods of deterring anti-social behaviour and drug use.
“We are also still helping them with their enquiries following the incident on 5 May.”
Do you think these security changes will resolve the issues around anti-social behaviour at Goodwood? Let us know your thoughts by emailing hhletters@timeinc.com and your views may be published in the letters page in Horse & Hound magazine
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.
