Racing has kept going against the odds amid COVID-19, but what will the Spring Carnival look like?

At this time of year, horse racing traditionally makes an abrupt transition from industry to sport as thousands of partygoers who don't know which end of a thoroughbred uses the feed bag head to the track.

This distinction might not please those hard-core racing enthusiasts who attend those sparsely populated winter meetings where social distancing was in vogue long before COVID-19.

But if racing is some people's sport of choice, it is also an industry that employs more than 80,000 people and which was granted exemptions that allowed tracks to stay open.

This prompted some murmurings of discontent back in March as other sports and events went into hiatus. The most sceptical wondered if government reliance on betting revenue had swayed decision making.

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Article written By Offsiders columnist Richard Hinds