Great Leighs Opens At Last ?

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stodge

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If we are to believe the RP, Great Leighs will finally open on April 4th - now I make that 18 months late but who's counting ?

April 4th is a curious choice - the assassination of Martin Luther King and my mate Alan's birthday as well as the day before the National so it sounds as though it will be fairly low-key. As it is my nearest racecourse, I will attend fairly soon though maybe not on Day 1.

It will be interesting to get a sense of the quality of fields and prize money. Arena are running the racing side so expect nothing too dramatic there.
 
I suppose I should be interested, but I can't build up any enthusiasm for another all-weather track.

I've got nothing against owners of low-grade horses wanting to see their horses run (and win) but I already feel that the bookmakers are trying their hardest to force-feed me a ridiculously unnecessary amount of A/W, £1,300 to the winner 0-60 handicaps, sellers, banded races and claimers. I simply have no interest in this heavily corrupt dross - so I imagine that I will largely just ignore Great Leighs.
 
I have similar feelings as Relkeel. & as for the date of opening, I think Claude Duval summed it up by saying that to open the day before the National is 'a masterful way of hiding any glaring cock-ups!'
 
Is there anywhere to see the race programme they have for the track? Is it certain to be more low grade contests?
 
Well in that case I might force myself to go then drive down to Berks!!
Was so looking forward to being a press rep, one of the few ways so far I've NOT yet got onto a racecourse [jockey is the other... LOL]

Gal, I think a lot of the Newmarket trainers will use it for giving their young'uns a spin, as it's prob now going to be the closest a/w track to HQ. Hope so anyway. They are apparently going to try to attract a good class of horse and owner, as they have spent a lot on owners' facilities
 
LEIGHS OPENING DELAYED AGAIN
By Nick Robson, PA Sport

Great Leighs have delayed their official opening by a further two weeks, with Britain's newest racecourse now set to open their doors on April 20.

The track was scheduled to stage their first meeting on April 4 but recent wet conditions have caused delays to some ground-works.

As a result, April 4 will now be used as a trial day and the first available day-time meeting will be used as a starting point.

Following a meeting with the British Horseracing Authority's Inspectorate, Great Leighs' owner John Holmes said: "Safety and integrity remains paramount, and with wintry conditions forecast for the Easter break, it was prudent to trial everything on April 4 and hold our first fixture on the 20th."

Although the 70 floodlight stanchions are in place, all parties are keen for the first meeting to take place in daylight.

Paul Struthers, spokesman for the BHA, added: "It is disappointing, but the site is not ready for trials to take place far enough in advance of its proposed starting date of April 4.

"A number of fixtures have been handed back to the BHA for re-auctioning and we are now working towards the full trials taking place on April 4, with the first meeting staged on April 20."
 
Pardon the input and I am no supporter of all-weather but Great Leighs might become a comparative phrase, such as :

'there's no chance of that happening' might become 'now that's a Great Leighs if ever I saw one'.

'snowball's chance in hell' might become ' as much chance as racing at Great Leighs'

Hmmm, thers a a challege for the more cynical amongst us.

Hoping all those with different tastes to mine enjoy the 'Great Leighs' experience when it happens.

My concern as an ex-project manager, and keen racing supporter, is that when a programme keeps slipping there is usually some deep rooted organisational problem. As an old and respected foundry man once told me (and I have always found this phrase useful) - you can never make good product out of a pile of s**t.

MR2
 
There is a deep-seated problem, as I noted earlier in the thread: the owner didn't get all the money and permissions in place before he began, hence a lot of the delays

This latest one has been caused by the weather, which has led to a postponement of the trials on the new surface - it's been a bit waterlogged apparently and they wanted to sort that out before trialling on it
 
Well tomorrow is the Great Day at Great Leighs - the first race meeting finally takes place. It was touch and go as they had to sort out various safety problems with the surrounding roads as well eg fencing in the area where horses unload.

It's quite a good card with decent prize money. This is not supposed to be yet another low grade course, it's been designed with international racing as a long term aim, and also for prepping horses for major races in Dubai and the USA. They've tried to design the track to eliminate bias

The card is being well supported by trainers, inc quite a few from Newmarket - it's going to be be very easy for them to get there as it's just down the M11, and it's always been intended that this would become their 'nursery'. They were very happy following the trials last weekend, or so I understand

It's an invitation only day tomorrow - the public don't get let in until the end of May - but I'm going as the rep for the local Anglia Press Agency, whose owner knows nothing about horses or racing, and cares less :D Which is my good luck. I'll report back, including on what a few trainers and jocks really think!
 
It will be interesting to see how this racecourse develops but I fear that in a couple of years time the word "quality" will not be associated with it. I hope I am wrong.
 
Originally posted by Galileo@Apr 19 2008, 08:10 PM
It will be interesting to see how this racecourse develops but I fear that in a couple of years time the word "quality" will not be associated with it. I hope I am wrong.
Click to expand...
Think you could be right Gal and that will just add to the load of poor racing we are already fed by racings rulers



Liquidity is carp on BF, but i'd sooner put a few quid on Graded stuff Stateside than the daily dross in UK
 
Cheers Charlie, just reading the bits in it in the RP right now, interesting that they are planning to add a turf course as well.
 
I'm off in a minute! Only 600 invited - that's Press and connections - so I feel very lucky to be at the first meeting. I'm going to link up with Jane C-H and John Egan to get their reactions later in the day. Shame the weather is so overcast and damp, not good for photography

I'll be interested to meet Pippa Cuckson the PR and Press lady who's had one of the harder jobs in racing this last year :rolleyes:
 
Looks like some fierce kickback, which I suppose is to be expected.

Edit: although Jason Weaver doesn't seem to think so... looked like it was flying to me in the early stages? shrug::
 
Only saw the first race but I thought it was very noticeable how spread out they finished. Seemed to come out at long intervals.
 
There was a couple of hard pullers who went off like scalded cats though, might have just been the result of a silly pace.
 
Corking track, that deserves to have corking racing run on it imo



Can't wait to see Soldier OF Fortune prepping on it for Breeders Cup Clasic
 
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