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I drove past there today, and there is more activity in Zak Dingle’s underpants than there is at the old Essex showground.<br>Is this project ever going to be started, or is it pie in the sky? It isn’t even started, apart from the layout for the track having been plotted and droved :(<br>I’m wondering if this is hitting problems somewhere in the chain.
<br>There’s a chain ?
You mean they can’t move into Great Leighs until they’ve sold their current racecourse?
Perhaps their financial backers have had a look at the Kempton gate receipts and decided they’d rather put their readies into The Sportsman!
AP
Like Kempton, there’s no problem with GL that couldn’t be solved by ensuring that their insurance documents are in good order and their firefighting equipment isn’t!
Personally I couldn’t care less one way or the other whether the thing gets built or not.<br>More mediocre AW dross on the way. Maybe the "spot the crowd" affairs at Kempton have beenn a salutory lesson though I can’t help thinking that the latter’s<br>PR and marketing types have messed up there.<br>I thought that Great Leighs faced a cut off deadline to be ready or lose its allocated fixtures?
Quote: from apracing on 6:44 pm on July 24, 2006[br]<br>There’s a chain ?
You mean they can’t move into Great Leighs until they’ve sold their current racecourse? <br>
Nah, I was refering to whatever chain of command is at apparent stalemate. I don’t think John Holmes has any interest in any other racecourses, he’s more a local entrepreneur.
First we were talking a June 2005 opening, then Oct 2006. Unless they can snap their fingers and make a racecourse appear as if by magic, i’d be surprised if they could even hold a meeting in Oct 2007 LOL<br>The work just isn’t happenning. Which makes me wonder if there is a problem somewhere?
Wallace, Gt Leighs is not just going to be an a/w track. It is supposed to be a major equestrian centre also, one of the best there is.
Everyone working at Great Leighs is utterly clueless about the racing side of the operation. A couple of months ago a colleague of mine got in touch with them to suggest that it might be a good idea to promote their fixtures by advertising them in the Racing Calendar. The response?
"Never heard of it"
Explanation given, followed by:
"Not interested – we’re planning a very low key opening"
From what I’ve heard, if there is a race meeting there on October 6th I will paint my backside blue and bare it in Woolworths window.
By the way – "low key opening" is just about right, from what I can recall about the proposed first fixture Britain’s first new racecourse in god knows how long will be opening in a blaze of glory with a Class 6 median auction maiden, followed by a seller.
(Edited by Happy Jack at 10:10 pm on July 24, 2006)<br>
(Edited by Happy Jack at 10:10 pm on July 24, 2006)
If it ever gets its arse in gear, Great Leighs is in a good position geographically, as in Newmarket trainers can get there without having to endure the M25 – I’m looking forward to yet more ‘inspired’ gambles on well-bred dodgepots!
What with it’s proximity to London, I expect we will see plenty of dubious results and I hope the course will be geared up to apprehend the money launderers and coke dealers!
What with it’s proximity to London, I expect we will see plenty of dubious results and I hope the course will be geared up to apprehend the money launderers and coke dealers!
Charming….
Great Leighs will be a big success. Its the one area of the country (maybe south west wales too) genuinely starved of a local racecourse
And it will appeal to the Essex man "neck the beers" element.<br>Gives them an alternative night out to Romford dogs.<br>Can’t wait!
Quote: from threenaps on 1:35 pm on July 25, 2006[br]Its coming on, a toilet block has now been built.
That ‘toilet block’ was already there. It’s the old judges pavilion from the Essex Show :biggrin:<br>Yes, even that still stands … and a little bit of scaffolding that I suppose is where the stands will be in a few years time :bore:<br>This, compared to the few months it takes to build a housing estate. Two years, and you wouldn’t even know the development is work in progress unless you already knew as much.<br>If I was JH, i’d be firing a lot of people and getting some fresh minds in on the project. This ‘work in progress’ is a fluster cluck as far as I see it.
If GL ever gets finished colour the AW surface green. <br>Then it won’t look like a dog track.
<br>Yes you are correct about the toilet block! it was the pavilion, its just that recently there has been scaffolding around it whilst being refurbished.
Some of the delay I think has been down to the County Councils miserly offer of compensation for land taken for the Gt Leighs bypass and the legal battle that followed and arguments about underpasses, and due also to the need to purchase more land at the back of the site for the planned training stables, delaying decisions on where the track would actually be placed. The opening will most likely be put back, as you say all you can see is the scaffolding that is around a large hole in the ground where the grandstand will be built and loads of earth from removing soil where the track will be.
It may well be low level racing under floodlights when it starts but as its only 7 miles up the road for me, I shall be happy to give it a chance, hopefully it will be a good day or evening out.
As far as catering goes it won’t have to do much to beat the overpriced low standards set in the Grandstand and paddock areas at Racing’s headquarters in Newmarket. Also its location is easy enough to travel to and from, either by car or by bus from Chelmsford train station.
The Lands Tribunal has upheld that level of compensation so if receiving a large wedge for that was part of the business plan that can’t have helped .
I doubt they would plan on such a contingency though and isn’t there also a plan for a turf track?
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