Chelmsford to compensate owners after final race abandonment

Owners of horses due to race in the abandoned final contest of Chelmsford's Thursday evening meeting are to receive £400 compensation from the racecourse.

The track will also cover fees for the six jockeys that had been booked to ride in the 6f handicap at 9.10pm, which could not be run due to a power outage caused by a fire.

The goodwill gesture from Chelmsford comes on top of an extra £100 for Racehorse Owners Association members responsible for at least 51 per cent of an intended runner in the race, as part of the group's raceday curtailment scheme.

Clerk of the course, Andy Waitt, on Friday made contact with owners of the six horses affected by the floodlight failure and thanked them for their understanding.

Waitt was also busy getting to the bottom of what had gone wrong the same evening, when the 8.40pm race was delayed while some power was restored. At The Races was unable to broadcast the race as a result of the electrical troubles.

With the floodlights unable to be turned back on and racing not permitted to go ahead without them within ten minutes of sunset, which on Thursday came at 9.10pm, the decision to abandon the final race was taken on health and safety grounds.

"We've had the engineers in this morning to identify the problem and it turns out it was a catastrophic failure in one particular circuit breaker," Waitt explained. "That is being repaired and we should be up and running again pretty soon."

Chelmsford's next meeting is on June 21, the Wednesday evening of Royal Ascot. Waitt does not anticipate any related disruption to that fixture.