Travellers Take Over Warwick Racecourse Car Park But Meeting Still Goes Ahead

Warwick today have had to deal with an incident on their car park ahead of their seven race card that takes place in the early afternoon of Thursday with a large frenzy of travellers taking up residence in the space.

Clerk of the course Jane Hedley has stated this morning that there should not be a threat to the proceedings of the meeting going ahead but there is around 30 caravans with up to 100 travellers setting up camp in the owners and trainers car park, which is actually owned by the Warwick District Council and is used as a pay and display on race days.

(Credit Racing Post) Clerk Jane Hedley said: "We don't anticipate any problems with racing as the travellers are completely contained in that area with a high fence between them and the track and no other areas are affected."

The police and council haven been working together since the travellers turned up at the race course and have been looking to move them on since there arrival at around 10 pm Wednesday night.

Warwick track officials have set up a plan of what to do if the unwanted visitors are still at the track by the time racing is set to start, with trainers and owners fully accommodated for the inconvenience.

Hedley added: "They arrived at 10pm last night and we're working to try to get them shifted by mid-morning, but failing that the contingency plan is to move owners, trainers and officials' parking into the centre of the racecourse,"

The seven-race card, which is still set to start at 12.15, has its feature race of the day taking place at 13:25 with the Class 1 Listed Mares Novice Chase featuring some decent young chasers.