Chelmsford racecourse vows to fight cancellations

Chelmsford City Racecourse has said it is appealing the decision to cancel forthcoming fixtures at the venue and that it is "not done fighting".

Great Leighs Estates Limited (GLEL), which operated the all-weather track, went into administration last month, and a new company applied to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for a licence to host races.

But the BHA refused the request and races on Thursday, Friday and 9 April have been called off.

A racecourse spokesperson said the cancellation decision was taken "against our strongest objections".

"We are not done fighting," it said in a statement.

"Chelmsford City Racecourse is formally challenging this decision through every avenue available to us, including the BHA's own appeals process.

"We believe the decision was procedurally unfair, contradicts the BHA's own published rules, and has caused entirely avoidable damage to the sport and everyone who depends on it," it added.

On 25 March, administrators were appointed for GLEL.

New operator Golden Mile Racing Limited (GMRL) made a case for a new licence to the BHA on Tuesday.

The regulator refused and said the reasons were "confidential".

GMRL was a "new entity with independent governance and access to new capital", the racecourse said.

The venue first opened as Great Leighs Racecourse in 2008 but soon went into administration and held its final race in 2009.

It was rebranded and reopened with new investment in 2015 and has gone on to host weddings and music events.

In September, Chelmsford City Council placed a restriction on its events licence, saying it could not host concerts with more than 10,000 people, after traffic chaos when Justin Timberlake performed there in July.

Local racing fan Oliver Wright said he won on a horse at Chelmsford recently as part of a syndicate for trainer James Owen.

Speaking to the BBC from outside the venue, he said: "It's a shame really because the nearest other one would be Newmarket (in Suffolk)."

Racing Post senior writer Lee Mottershead suggested the racecourse owners should sell to "totally new ownership" in order to bring fixtures back.

"Perhaps the BHA might look at the situation in a different way [if they sold] - it almost certainly would do," he told BBC Essex presenter Ben Fryer.

The racecourse said its family-friendly Easter festival would go ahead on Friday, but without any racing.

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