Earliest meeting: Sunday 20th April 2008
Final meeting: Monday 29th December 2008
Situated near Chelmsford in Essex, Great Leighs racecourse opened for business on 20th April 2008 and was the first racecourse to be opened in England for 81 years, the previous being Taunton in 1927. It was the brainchild of John Holmes and his ambition was to serve an area of the country not previously served by a course. Indeed the Great Leighs course was ideally positioned for the Newmarket trainers, barely 80 kilometres away, and for the punters of Greater London. It boasted a grandstand capable of serving 10,000 people and an all weather polytrack course of just slightly more than a mile around. From day one the course hit setbacks having previously been due to open two years earlier in October 2006. To ensure that there were no hitches once it opened to the public, a day only for invited guests was arranged for 4th April 2008. However, this had to be changed and was rescheduled for Sunday 20th April. All went well at the meeting and the first public meeting took place on Monday 29th December 2008. Despite being ideally placed it failed to secure the numbers expected and was placed in administration in January 2009.
Monday 29th December 2008
Mulled Wine Stakes
1. Chalice Welcome ridden by Hayley Turner
2. Jiminor Mack ridden by Andrea Atzeni
3. Itsawindup ridden by E Creighton
Much of the information about this course has been found using internet research and is in the public domain. However, useful research sources have been:-
London Illustrated News
Racing Illustrated 1895-1899
The Sporting & Dramatic Illustrated
Northern Turf History Volumes 1-4 by J.Fairfax-Blakeborough
The Sporting Magazine
A Long Time Gone by Chris Pitt first published in 1996 ISBN 0 900599 89 8
Racing Calendars which were first published in 1727
