Long-awaited turf course at Chelmsford facing further delay after summer drought

Chelmsford's ambition to become the first racecourse in Britain to stage floodlit racing on turf could be set for a further delay into 2023 after the driest summer on record in East Anglia.

The Essex track has had a mere 10mm of rain in the past three months leaving course officials to apply nearly three million litres of water to the new turf track, which sits inside the existing all-weather circuit.

Officials originally hoped to stage trials on the new track last spring, but the only horses to have used the surface were Wesley Ward's team for Royal Ascot in June.

Clerk of the course Andy Waitt said: "We're pleased with the turf track which has excellent root growth. We've put nearly three million litres of water on it through the summer from our own reservoir and in an ideal world we would like to race in October, but that is subject to BHA approval and trials.

"However, due to the conditions we've had this summer it may well be that it is now the spring when we get the track up and running."

The new lights at Chelmsford could be in operation for its meeting next Thursday

On his rainfall gauge, Waitt added: "We've had zero rainfall recently and just about 10mm in the past three months. We've been watering like other courses to keep it green."

When the turf track finally comes into play it could be baby steps to start with. The course is just finishing installing state of the art lighting for the project and the existing track following damage to some of the lighting columns from Storm Eunice in February, since when the track has had no floodlit fixtures.

Waitt said: "To start with I would imagine it will be a split card with five races on the all-weather and two on the turf. We've changed the lighting to LED which has cost us £2 million. Initially a couple of the columns were damaged by Storm Eunice last winter and we took the opportunity to change them all.

"We've had no racing under lights since then and instead have just raced a bit earlier as you can do in the summer. Thankfully, we are hoping to have them ready to use for our next evening meeting next Thursday [September 8]. We've not raced on after 8pm this summer, but in winter we can race until 9pm or 9.15pm."

Chelmsford details

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