Great Leighs Opens At Last ?

One of the biggest safety issues was over the lack of an ambulance track that follows the entire track around - there isn't one.

For now it has been agreed that if they have four ambulances and four ambulance teams there that will suffice.
 
Julian Muscat in tomorrow's Times



It was akin to opening night for the critics at a West End play. The props were in place and the actors played, yet the silence so redolent of theatre was strangely out of place at Great Leighs yesterday. Only in racing could a new facility open with its turnstiles firmly closed to the public.

But then, racing is a complex business. It is no accident that Great Leighs is the first new British racecourse for 81 years. That its opening has been troubled was plain from an 18-month deferment and facilities primitive to all but the horses.

With the quadrupeds catered for, the only other stipulation for Great Leighs' entry to the matrix of high-street betting fodder was the presence of three bookmakers to ensure the return of official starting prices. Lo and behold, representatives from those high-street behemoths, Ladbrokes and Corals, were on hand to secure a slice of local history.

Not since Chelmsford closed in 1935 have they watched horse racing in Essex. And that, in essence, is the hook on which John Holmes, whose vision is embedded in mudtracks that presently pass for walkways, has hung a project that has absorbed close to £30 million to date.

In no way can Holmes be described a conventional racing man. Racing is merely his vehicle for a commercial venture that has enormous potential. He estimates that the local catchment amounts to four million people with little choice for their entertainment.

The same aficionados who scoffed at his plans are those who did likewise at the all-weather revolution pioneered 20 years ago by Ron Muddle. And while Muddle had the last laugh, there is some way to go before Holmes can rest easy.

Whatever the future holds, Holmes was delighted yesterday to have reached the launchpad. “Today is all about the track and the racing facilities,” he said. “We want to develop our regular Thursday evenings with the City crowd, but for now, it is about getting the infrastructure right.”

There remains much to do. Health and safety officers abounded among 600 invitees as they contemplated a host of potential pitfalls. That racing can take place in such circumstances will baffle the unversed, but Holmes has paid the racing authorities more than £1 million for missed fixtures over the delays. Better to race before empty galleries than not at all.

The grandstand, perched in the middle of the track, remains a shell that is due to host the paying public for the first time on May 28. That will be the litmus for Holmes and his ambitious project, since the entire site cannot possibly be in bloom by then.

He is asking future patrons to embrace his vision of the future. Much of his optimism stems from a belief that customers will not stray far from plush pitches in a grandstand that restricts viewing heavily.

“People today like to look at screens, rather than watch racing live,” Holmes ventured. He had better be right, since viewing is confined to the final two furlongs.

At this stage the stand is a temporary structure, but if Holmes' instinct is borne out, it may become permanent at the expense of the projected grandstand due for construction on the other side of the course. “We will assess how it works,” he said, “but I am a businessman. I believe that if something isn't broken, why fix it?”

Why indeed? Especially when Great Leighs is a first and foremost a commercial venture. “We have to address the question of entertainment as much as the racing product,” Holmes said. “If people leave here and say: �what a lovely little racetrack,' that's good enough for me. We are never going to be Ascot.”

There were certainly no complaints from those who saddled runners. The one-mile oval rode to the satisfaction of jockeys, and the ledger records that the opening race was won by the Ed Dunlop-trained Temple Of Thebes, ridden by Stephen Donohoe.

After several false dawns, it required an entrepreneur like John Holmes to deliver Britain's newest racetrack. To have designed a place for the public and cognoscenti alike would have been to invite disaster. Great Leighs is a racecourse for the 21st-century consumer. For that reason alone it may work better than most.
 
Good luck to them. I hope it's a success and I look forward to going along one day to have a look.
 
The grandstand is located in the middle of the track, thus ensuring you can only see the last quarter mile of a race?

Are they completely mad?

Makes the positioning of the new Ascot stand look like a design masterpiece.
 
Originally posted by Venusian@Apr 20 2008, 09:14 PM
The grandstand is located in the middle of the track, thus ensuring you can only see the last quarter mile of a race?
Click to expand...
:what:
 
Originally posted by Diamond Geezer@Apr 20 2008, 07:22 PM
“People today like to look at screens, rather than watch racing live,” Holmes ventured. He had better be right, since viewing is confined to the final two furlongs."
Click to expand...
In that case, what the **** is the point of going racing at all?

Unbelievably ignorant attitude to those few people who are actually there to see the racing. Par for the course I suppose.
 
The track is absolutely huge. Even if you didn't have the grandstand inside the track, and other buildings, you would not be able to see the whole course, or even very much of it - the other side is a very long way away. You can't see them go down either for most races - the stalls are away in the other direction [rather like for some races at Newbury and Lingfield]

It won't suit everyone, it's true - but there are biggish screens in several places inc the paddock and it's true that most 'connections' prefer to watch on a screen these days, esp trainers. There were certainly no complaints today from any of those.

There's a hell of a lot still to do, but the place has great potential. In the immediate future they need to organise more walkways - at the moment there's only the horsewalk :rolleyes: And a great deal of MUD!

But I enjoyed it and I can see that in a couple of years d.v. it could be a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon or evening. It's been planned very much as an entertainment 'venue', for better or worse. But the whole thing had to be designed like that as the place where the grandstand was supposed to go was requisitioned for a 4 lane bypass! - hence moving the stand inside the track
 
Originally posted by Venusian@Apr 20 2008, 09:14 PM
The grandstand is located in the middle of the track, thus ensuring you can only see the last quarter mile of a race?
Click to expand...
Not much different to the concept at Wolverhampton, then. When we took ONE ALONE there, I was amazed by the fact that hardly anyone went down to the paddock at all, hardly anyone seemed to move away from their tables and, while I admit there is apretty excellent view of the track, the majority didn't seem to do much looking out of the windows - the TV's were far more popular.


Just catering for a certain audience, I guess...
 
Originally posted by Sheikh@Apr 21 2008, 07:31 AM
If it's a big track does that mean it has gradual bends and is a good galloping track ?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's vast and has been planned with the intention of firstly and most importantly being capable of hosting racing at the highest level, eg Dubai / Breeders Cup style! - and secondly of eliminating bias. That's been part of the problem - it was so ambitious, and as the Mareting Director said, "We had to do it right first time so far as the track was concerned, that's the only thing we were going to get just one crack at and it was the really essential thing"

See the front page of the RP today and all the comment in the reports, inc quotes from participating professionals

http://tinyurl.com/4udf3v

also

http://tinyurl.com/52ln76


I think viewing might be problem once it gets crowded, but then it's a problem at a lot of courses. Chepstow? The sprint track at Sandown ffs? Royal Ascot if you don't have a R Enc badge? Even Newmarket is far from viewer-friendly imo - impossible to see what's going on till they get right up to you

I've gone racing with quite a lot of trainers over the last few years, and they almost all watch the races on screen - many of them staying in the Parade ring to do so. It makes sense - they need to watch a horse right through the race, to see what happens. Groups of Trainers with their owners watching on screens in the Champagne Bar at Newbury are a common sight - quite funny too as the respective camps try to cheers theirs on louder than the next table!

Going out onto the terracing to watch races is becoming the die-hard romantics' way of doing it - getting blinded by the sun or soaked though or having your RP blown away isn't for everyone. Holmes has seen how race-going is changing and taken note. He's also trying to cater for his own local - Essex - clientele, who will want a day out at least as much as racing. Personally, if they have decent sized screens all over the place, I'm happy with that as I don't necessarily want to traipse back and forth to trackside all the time and for every race.

I'm going to post up a load of photos later on FF [can't do it here] - and if anyone knows if it's possible to retrieve images from an Olympus sim card once you've deleted them, and if so how, please let me know, as I managed to delete instead of save the photos from the first two races :brows: which were of course the historic ones - I go t in the winners Enc too! Arrgghh

But Goober must have have some corkers, he was a very busy boy yesterday :D
 
Originally posted by Headstrong@Apr 21 2008, 06:00 PM
I think viewing might be problem once it gets crowded
Click to expand...
Is this still the Great Leighs thread? Or are you the Marketing Director?
 
Originally posted by Headstrong@Apr 21 2008, 06:00 PM
I think viewing might be problem once it gets crowded
Click to expand...
You don't seem to understand that 75% of the track is already invisible from the stands.

"Once it gets crowded" doesn't come into it.
 
75% of the track is invisible at most tracks to all intents and purposes.

I'm talking about being able to see the last two furlongs, as there are as yet no steppings!
It was possible yesterday to fan out down the open terrace overlooking the track/s - it runs the whole length of the building - but when there are *a lot* more people it might be hard to see much if you aren't at the front. But we weren't allowed upstairs yesterday so it's difficult to know what it's like from up there

I understand perfectly well what you can and can't see - I'm trying to give some idea of what it's like ffs as I'm probably the only person on here who has actually been! I hate people knocking things when they've never been/seen them... There was a tremendous roar each time as the horses rounded the bend into the straight and came into view - all eyes turned left to watch them; before that everyone had been glued to the big screen, discussing who was going best.

Venusian I don't know when you last went racing, but in my experience 90% of people watch all but the last two furlongs on the big screen anyway, whichever track they're at, assuming it has a screen! - and it works perfectly well, being a good bit more efficient and informative than using bins!
 
".............all eyes turned left to watch them;................."

It's a left-handed track and the stands are on the inside of the course and all eyes turned left????

Am I missing somefink?
 
The media coverage for Great Leighs has been very positive and I look forward to going along to have a look myself sometime in June.

One slightly negative view for me is the presumption in some quarters that GL is going to be the British equivalent of Dundalk. I'm not convinced - Sunday's card was the equivalent of a Saturday Lingfield card in midwinter in terms of quality and with rather fewer runners. In fact, the prize money for the 3-y-o maiden was less than for a equivalent race the night before at Wolverhampton.

There will undoubtedly be a lot of moderate fare at GL and no one should get away from that. It is in competition with Lingfield and Kempton (primarily) and brave talk of a Breeders Cup trial evening doesn't alter for me the fact that unless we see aomething more noticeable in terms of prize money GL will simply become just another AW venue.

It may also be bad luck on John Holmes that he chose to open a racecourse just as the economy was beginning to weaken. The recent Ashforth article showed some worrying signs about racecourse attendance which may be unwelcome to the supporters of Ffos Las and every other course.
 
Originally posted by Colin Phillips@Apr 22 2008, 06:50 AM
".............all eyes turned left to watch them;................."

It's a left-handed track and the stands are on the inside of the course and all eyes turned left????

Am I missing somefink?
Click to expand...
I thought that too - I saw a glimpse of them driving round it in the morning, adn Ive spent all last night trying to work out how they can come out of a chute left handed and have to finish from the right.....

though I put it down to me missing something, or them having to do some klind of funky P shape or something!!


mexing lefts and rights must be the after effects from champers and wine.... :D
 
It's not actually Trudles, it's the effect of ME! Mild mental confusion and sudden short term memory loss is the most annoying symptom!! At least I'm not churning out long strings of wrong words as I was a few weeks ago...a kind of 'whole word dyslexia' - really weird to read sometimes what I'd written, bearing no relation to what I'd intended to write... hence all the editing!

Luckily the symptoms have improved a lot in the last fortnight and I'm able to get about again, also my sinus is op is scheduled for 29th May so I should be A1 after that [for my age] for a while at least!


Anyway! - I had a guest invite for the meeting tonight, but the forumite who took it up now can't come, sadly. If anyone in Essex would like it please let me know, first race is at 5.45 and I'm setting off in about 35 mins.

If anyone would like to come on Tuesday next, I can probably get them on the guest list too, please pm me if interested, with your proper name and pref email. In fact I could probably set up an Inter Forum freebie! The following week the place opens to the public so that's the end of the 'closed meetings'; for now there's lots of room and vacant tables with proper cloths and flowers LOL so it's perfect for a 'meet'

I took some photos at the first meeting which are here numbers 2 to 13 inc are mine.
I expect the ones I took for the May 1st meeting will go up tomorrow - I didn't send them til yesterday evening :brows: and I'll be taking a few more tonight.
 
FREE INVITATION TO GREAT LEIGHS NEXT TUESDAY 13th MAY

This is an evening meeting. I suggested it might be good PR to invite people from the various racing forums I belong to, so they could 'see for themselves', and this was agreed. Next week is the last of the closed meetings, ie invitation only, so we may as well make the most of it!

If anyone wants to take this up can you let me know asap via PM and I'll put you on the list.
I realise some people might want or need to maintain anonymity, in which case I'll work round that.
 
Just to remind you of the above offer -
Any more takers, as I want to put in the list tomorrow?
 
My private visit to Great Leighs on Thursday was fascinating - Pippa Cuckson who has been involved in the project right from the start gave me two hours of her time, told me the whole story, then drove me round the perimeter and the area behind the bypass to demonstrate what she'd been saying.

Suffice to say, as I'm trying to write a piece for publication and and don't want to put it all in here, besides which it would take too long - the new bypass for which the land was compulsorily purchased does NOT follow the line of the old road.

You can see* that in the poster I photographed in reception, of the old Essex Show Ground. The old road - it must be the ancient Roman road north from Chelmsford - can be seen running straight north to the right hand edge of the pic.

The new road runs roughly where the section of exhibits to the right of the centre aisle follows up from the car park, ie between the 2nd and 3rd aisles from the right:

[photo* posted on Final Furlong, sorry don't have a hosting site to post it here]

The loss of 20% approx of the operational land was a disaster, and the new road went just behind where the new stand, designed to hold 10,000, was intended to sit. See original plan in the following graphic, which was on the wall - so excuse flowers and shadows... You can see the line of the old road following the treeline behind the stand top left; the new road runs roughly where the stand is shown, outside the track nb!:

[Photo posted on final furlong]


Even worse, the new bypass made access to the site very difficult - they were only permitted one entrance off the bypass, whereas there had been 5 off the old road; and it cut the racecourse off entirely from existing public transport routes, inc bus routes from the station - all still go down this old road.

Worst of all, it marooned the site for the racecourse stables on the other side of the bypass.
The only way to get access for the horses was via tunnel..... cue a whole new battle

Holmes went to court to try to get remedies for these severe problems, which looked like scuppering the whole project - part of the remedy was to be a tunnel pref to be built by the country council as part of his compensation, and the provision of public transport to the site . He lost this fight, the judge [who's apparently a Member at Newmarket!!] remarking as he gave judgment that 'No-one goes racing by public transport" :xam:

I'll spare you some of the protracted planning battles..... But it's no wonder word went round that the place might never open! It's a miracle it did... Only one thing gave a ray of hope.

The owner of the adjoining estate to the South, Moulsham Hall, had sold the right hand side of the field in the foreground of the top poster above, where the cars are parked, to the Council for the bypass, hence giving them a wedge to force through the compulsory purchase of Holmes' land. However four years into the battle, this neighbour put the MH Estate up for sale, and John Holmes bought it.

This is what has saved the day, as Holmes was able to move the racecourse stables over there adjacent to the existing farmyard, enabling a complete redesign which does work. [The rest of the estate is intended for equestrianism inc a cross country course for which it's ideal - and probably a training yard & gallops will be built as well - it's a big place]. A tunnel was built under the track, through which the horses reach the infield.

This is why the purchased stand had to be put in the infield. The original stand as designed is still going to be built but it will be sited a bit to the north of where it was intended to go, where the land is a bit wider behind the track. Meanwhile, across the bypass they own a useless strip of land an average 30 yards wide between the two roads....

Finally, last year Holmes was able to buy a large field behind the old road, for parking, and this will be linked with a coach service on a loop so people don't have to run the gauntlet of the bypass... The course are still hoping that the Council will see sense over the access tunnel, and that it won't take an accident before they do so. The feeling is that they never believed the place would open.... but there are now signs they are coming round to the idea it's going to be a big success......!

That's the VERY truncated version.... every possible obstacle was put in Holmes's way. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't followed the story properly, thinking it was just financial problems which were to blame - although Holmes did of course need to keep raising ever more money as all these problems needed to be overcome. The legal bills alone must have been huge

A great deal of the story can be followed in the archive [inc photo archive] section of their website


Meanwhile there are still some £20 badges going for Weds/Thurs, but you do need to book!
These give you access to all areas btw, but not to a meal/table for the evening, tho I understand bars will be staying open. There was a massive amount of work going on, inc paving in front of the stand for cafes, new champagne bar on the lawn by the horsewalk/pre-parade ring etc etc
 
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