Looking for a Sport to Watch? It Won’t Be Easy

The rest of the world was virtually sports free.

Here is a look at the games and events that are still bring held. For now.

Sports With Animals

While human sports have been shutting down, horse racing has proved to be surprisingly resilient, even in places like France and Britain, which are all but closed down.

In New York, restaurants and schools were ordered closed, yet Aqueduct was open for horse racing without fan attendance this weekend, financed by bettors at home and at simulcast locations. On Monday, the New York Racing Association said the track would continue to offer live racing. There was also racing at Gulfstream in South Florida and Santa Anita in California. There were no fans, but jockeys, trainers and, of course, horses were all busy with their usual jobs. “Very strange,” jockey John Velazquez told The Miami Herald of racing at a nearly empty Gulfstream Park. “It’s a little bit sad.”

Cheltenham in England ran its prestigious horse racing festival last week, and 250,000 fans showed up over the four days, down just 5 percent from last year. Spectators pressed eagerly against one another to cheer Al Boum Photo to a repeat victory in the Gold Cup, and Princess Anne and other members of the royal family were among them. With the conclusion of the festival, racing in Britain will now take place without fans at least through the end of March.

And the mushers kept mushing at the Iditarod trail sled dog race in Alaska, which neared its finish. Because the race is nearly 1,000 miles, “they do a very good job of social distancing,” Heidi Hedberg, Alaska’s public health director, told The Washington Post.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/sports/coronavirus-not-canceled.html