What is going on at troubled Chelmsford City Racecourse?

There was great fanfare when Chelmsford City Racecourse, then known as Great Leighs, became the first track to open in Britain for 81 years.

Today, 18 years on, it is known as the racecourse that can no longer host racing.

A spiralling chain of events that started with chaos after a Justin Timberlake concert in July led to the venue losing its racing licence in April.

What is going on at Chelmsford City Racecourse?

It is not the first time Chelmsford's site, within an hour's drive of Newmarket, has had to take a racing hiatus.

Shortly after it opened as Great Leighs Racecourse in 2008, the gates were shut again after its parent company racked up debts of £25m and went into administration.

Seven years later, the track was revived and reopened under the name it uses today, enjoying a successful spell of business.

That was to come crashing down via, unusually for horse racing, the form of 10-time Grammy Award winner Justin Timberlake.

His performance at the venue was supposed to have been a watershed moment. It had held festivals and shows before, but not by anyone of the pop star Timberlake's calibre.

But traffic chaos and "catastrophic" failures in crowd management led Essex Police to say people could have died that night on 4 July 2025.

Some of the 25,000 concert-goers abandoned their cars and walked up the A131 when queues to leave the venue were up to four hours long.

"It felt like something really bad was going to happen at any minute," remembers Liam Smith, 34, who was at the gig.

"I can't quite believe people were just allowed to do that, it seems a bit crazy to me."

Racecourse chiefs were hauled before a panel at Chelmsford City Council, who ruled in September 2025 that it could no longer host music events for more than 10,000 people.

Chief executive Nathan Holmes later apologised for the disruption and said visitor safety was his "highest priority".

Yet another blow was to follow, with the track's tenant, Great Leighs Estates Ltd (GLEL), indicating an intention to appoint administrators.

The BBC reported this in February, having seen paperwork filed at the High Court.

Accounts submitted to Companies House also suggested GLEL made a loss of £11.8m in the year to 30 August 2023.

The racecourse insisted it was undergoing a "restructuring process" and that all fixtures were "unaffected and will continue to be unaffected".

A new tenant, Golden Mile Racing Ltd (GMRL), took over and applied for a fresh racing licence, but, looking beneath its veneer, it appeared to be the same old faces.

Its directors - Neil Graham, Philip Siers and Nathan Holmes, son of track founder John Holmes - were almost identical to GLEL, whose board consisted of Graham, Siers and John Holmes.

"I'm not sure how much they are even trying to mask everything," says Peter Scargill, deputy industry editor at Racing Post.

Ultimately, GMRL's bid was refused by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and, despite promises made, all races were cancelled.

Scargill continues: "Gradually over time, the Holmes family have exerted more influence over the racecourse.

"The Holmes' involvement is something the BHA is uncertain of, because the racecourse has run into financial difficulties twice.

"They're nervous if they were to licence a new organisation it might happen again."

The racecourse hit out at the BHA within hours of its decision, indicating a desire to appeal and saying it was "not done fighting".

It claimed the BHA had introduced "new challenges with extremely limited time for response", adding the track's "performance, capability, safety" or quality had not been in question.

The regulator said the reasons for refusing the licence were "confidential".

In an updated statement provided to the BBC, a spokesman for the racecourse said it was "working closely" with the BHA to resume racing ahead of the summer programme of fixtures.

"Non-racing events will continue as planned, including the Run Away festival next month," he added.

Scargill says the row was not surprising for many in horse racing circles.

"It had been building towards this. There had been an undercurrent for a while about how it's operating," he says of Chelmsford.

"I don't think they'd be naive or absent enough to wonder where this has come from; the issue is why this wasn't dealt with sooner."

The journalist says while punters may not be bothered about the saga, the racecourse's reputation will have suffered within the industry.

He adds: "They can't operate as a venue any longer, so they cease to be a racing ground and effectively become an empty field with some stands.

"It is incredibly rare that a venue will not be licensed."

The BBC approached GLEL for an updated comment but did not receive a response.

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