Doncaster Racecourse told by the government that Welsh group did not attend the races last week

The Welsh health minister said yesterday that a group of people from a rugby club in the Rhondda Valley who had visited Doncaster races last week and visited several pubs along the way had been identified as a coronavirus cluster which had contributed to a local lockdown in part of Wales.

Yet Doncaster Racecourse have issued a statement saying they have now been told by Public Health Wales that this was not the case.

A statement on their website read: "Following this Wednesday's announcements from the Welsh Health Minister, Doncaster Racecourse can confirm the following.

"As a condition of running the pilot event last week, we were required to implement a full track and trace database that took the details of all attendees that would be on site, linked to an e-ticket and photo ID system on entry that would verify attendance.

"Doncaster Racecourse has received no contact from any organisation, including the NHS or the Welsh Government, to verify the attendance of any individuals at last week’s event for the purposes of track and trace. In addition, we do not have any ticket bookings for any groups from the South Wales area for Wednesday’s event.

We will be contacting the Welsh Health Minister as a matter of urgency to clarify the situation.

"Along with our colleagues at the British Horseracing Authority, we were pleased to receive confirmation on Wednesday evening from Public Health Wales that this group did not, indeed, attend the pilot event at Doncaster Racecourse last week."