The home of British jumps racing, Cheltenham Racecourse who host the biggest and best four days of racing in the national hunt calendar have won a High Court injunction that will ban all ticket touts from the track. This will last for the whole of the 2018/19 season and not just the four day festival which is groundbreaking for the establishment.
An interlocutory injunction against ticket touts was granted yesterday and for it to start with immediate effect. This comes in really handy for the racecourse that have their opening meeting of the season on Friday, with a good two day meeting of racing to really kick start the national hunt season.
The boss of national hunts headquarters of racing has marked the verdict as a "Landmark Decision" and this is not just for the racecourse but for the attending racegoers to the meetings.
(Credit Racing Post) Ian Renton said: “We welcome the judgement of Mr Justice Nugee at the High Court today, when an injunction was granted against ticket touting at Cheltenham racecourse.
“This prohibits the selling and buying of tickets by touts on racecourse property, and we welcome this landmark decision.
“It's the first time any such injunction has been granted to prevent touting at a racecourse. It will take effect from this weekend and will remain in place for the whole season.
"We are grateful for the full support of Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucestershire Police in seeking this injunction.
“This is the next step in seeking to reduce, and where possible eliminate, the unpleasant and often criminal activities of touts that undermine the enjoyment of our racegoers.”
Throughout the season at not just Cheltenham, but other racecourses that are owned by the Jockey Club like Aintree with the Grand National and Epsom with the Derby, ticket touts are meant to cost the organisation close to £1 million each year.
At the Cheltenham Festival this year there was approximately close to 150 ticket touts operating within the grounds over the four days for each day. The touts are always coming up with new ways to scam punters and the racecourse.
The most recent tactic being the printing of fake cardboard badges that will aim to get you into the corporate sections of the track. The more original ways in the past has been the reselling of tickets that have already been scanned.
Horse racing and Cheltenham have made a historic move for the sport by getting ahead of the game and getting a real hold on the situation to allow the best experience possible for the race goer.
Ticket touting takes place in all sports across the globe but in England the most prominent places that it is found is outside football games like Wembley when England are playing or at Wimbledon, for one of the biggest Tennis tournaments of the season.
This well never change unless those sports governing bodies act on the situation like horse racing have done this time around.