CHESTER Racecourse will return to racing action next month – but the meetings will be 'behind closed doors'.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic restrictions, crowds will not be allowed to attend the fixtures, which begin with an afternoon of racing on Monday, August 10, at 4pm.

The eight races that day are part of a pre-arranged contingency set of racing fixtures the British Horseracing Authority had organised, in the event that the public would not be able to return to horseracing events.

Other fixtures to be held in August are on Friday, August 14 (2pm start) and Thursday, August 20 (4pm start).

The racecourse is still hoping to host public race meetings in September, the final month of its scheduled 2020 race season. If given the go-ahead, such meetings would likely have significantly reduced visitor capacity and social distancing measures.

The three public race meetings currently scheduled to take place are the Autumn Festival on September 11-12 and the Season Finale on September 26.

Tickets are available on the Chester Racecourse website at https://www.chester-races.com.

The public are currently able to attend outdoor sporting events involving a different sort of horse power elsewhere in the county, with Cheshire's Oulton Park circuit hosting motor race meetings throughout the summer and into the autumn, with reduced visitor capacity.