City of dreams looking forward to bright future after rocky start

Graham Dench reports on the big ambitions for the Essex track

Luke McJannet's new career as a trainer will begin at Chelmsford on Thursday

Action got under way again when the track was reopened in January 2015Credit: Edward Whitaker

Just two years after it reopened as Chelmsford City, the racecourse formerly known as Great Leighs appears to have put its troubled past firmly behind it.

Taken at face value, the recent news that permission has been granted for a casino within a spanking new five-storey grandstand, and furthermore that work could soon begin on a long planned for floodlit turf track, represented a quantum leap.

The simultaneous, although coincidental, announcement from Jockey Club Racecourses regarding the proposed bulldozing of Kempton for housing and building of an all-weather course at nearby Newmarket was an unexpected complication, however.

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Graham DenchReporter

Published on 1 February 2017inIn Focus

Last updated 13:57, 1 February 2017

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