Great Leighs placed in administration
Britain’s newest racetrack, Great Leighs, has been placed into administration.
The British Horseracing Authority confirmed today that the Essex venue had its latest application for an extension to its temporary licence refused and next Thursday’s scheduled fixture had already been moved to Kempton.
A statement issued from administrators Deliotte this evening said: “We have today been appointed administrators and will be assessing the position of the group in order to determine the best outcome for its creditors.
“We will continue to work with existing management and key business partners to continue to trade the business in the short term.
“We are currently in discussions with the sport’s regulatory body, the British Horseracing Authority, in respect of securing the course’s racing licence and ability to continue to trade as a going concern while we investigate the opportunity of a sale.”
Earlier in the day John Holmes, owner of the track, had said: “We are going through a restructuring process at the moment and as part of that we were operating under a temporary licence.
“We successfully ran four fixtures this month under a temporary licence but the process has taken longer than we hoped.
“We applied for an extension to cover the next two (January 22 and 29) but were told we had not supplied enough information.
“Because of the timing for entries, we have lost next Thursday’s fixture.
“We are back at the BHA on Monday with a view to resuming racing from January 29.”
The application for a temporary licence was declined at a hearing on Thursday, meaning the track will not be able to race until the issue is resolved.
A statement on www.britishhorseracing.com explained: “The racecourse managing executive has been operating under temporary licences since January 1, 2009, the latest of which expired at midnight on January 15, 2009.
“An application at the hearing was made for a new temporary licence to operate until the end of January.
“The committee declined to grant a further temporary licence.
“The effect is that, unless and until a new application is made and is successful, there is no licence in place for racing at Great Leighs.
“The Racing Department of the BHA are dealing with the Fixture List and racing administration consequences of this.”
Built on the 430-acre site of the former Essex showground north of Chelmsford, Essex, the track should originally have been launched in October 2006.
However, a series of hold-ups dogged the track until it finally opened its doors in April last year to become the first new British racecourse since 1927.
