Great Leighs deadline.

Great Leighs 2010 fixtures face deadline


THE various parties attempting to sort out the future of Great Leighs racecourse are likely to be given two months to reach an agreement, or the opportunity to stage any fixtures in 2010 could disappear.

BHA racing director Ruth Quinn revealed on Friday that when the BHA board meets on Monday, members will be asked to set a deadline for a resolution of the Great Leighs operating position, because of its significance to the 2010 fixture list process.

While the company that ran Great Leighs remains in administration, without a licence to race, the BHA has to decide, as far as compiling next year's programme is concerned, how to treat 16 fixture slots given to Great Leighs under the ‘new racecourse' guidelines and a further 12 that are in mid-lease, after being acquired under an open bidding process.


Quinn said: "The fixture process for 2010 begins early next month, and reaches an important stage on June 8, with the bidding process for BHA-owned fixtures.

"With this in mind, the BHA board needs to take a decision by the end of May at the latest on how we are going to deal with Great Leighs for next year's fixtures. They will be asked to set the timetable on Monday."

Great Leighs was originally scheduled to stagea total of 71 fixtures this year, seven fewer than slots allocated for 2007 but never taken up because of delays in opening the course.

The 43 fixtures with one-year leases that were acquired for 2009 in the last bidding process will return to the BHA for re-auction regardless of Great Leighs's corporate position.

The Deloitte team has no immediate race-planning or fixture expertise to call on, having made all but four of the Great Leighs staff redundant, and cannot count on support from the Racecourse Association, of which the track remains a member.

RCA chief executive Stephen Atkin revealed that the trade body is owed fees by Great Leighs, and said: "That's a problem for me, so my view is that we don't represent them, and they won't have the benefit of our advice, including in terms of fixtures."

The Essex County Showground Group, which opened the site for racing in April last year, went into administration on January 16. On Thursday joint administrators working for business adviser Deloitte announced they had asked the major creditor, Royal Bank of Scotland, to investigate taking on the project with a suitable racecourse operator.

A suitable racecourse operator...do they have Phumelela' phone number? Lol.

Morning Magic, well we wanted a track with a set of lights?

And it's Polytrack! Perfect, although the commute would be a pain in the ass...

Speaking of lights, they are apparently coming soon to a racecourse near you...but we could do with Great Leighs' AW track. Would have come in handy yesterday!

Was far more excited until i realised Great lays was a Race Track