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Tuesday’s card cut short as the track was plunged into darkness

Chelmsford City officials are anticipating no problems ahead of Thursday’s fixture after racing was abandoned following just three events on Tuesday.

Floodlight failure during the third race plunged the track into darkness and the decision was taken to call off the rest of the meeting.

In a press release, racecourse manager Fraser Garrity said: “The majority of last night’s fixture at Chelmsford City Racecourse (CCR) was abandoned due to floodlight power failure at the end of the third race and we would like to apologise to all racegoers, horsemen, racing fans and other racing stakeholders for the inconvenience caused.

“The team at CCR is extremely disappointed that the floodlight system did not operate as it should with regard to the back-up power available and we have immediately started an investigation as to how this incident, which we are treating as an absolute priority, occurred.

“We were actually able to successfully re-boot the floodlights after racing last night and they all operated as per their usual high standard. On that basis, we do expect tomorrow’s card to proceed as normal although this will be clarified later today after final investigations. Safety is, of course, paramount.”

Garrity stated racegoers will receive their money back while goodwill gestures will be made to participants of the third race. Those due to be involved in later races will get £300, while jockeys will also get their fees.

The statement concluded: “We are fully committed to and pride ourselves on providing a very good racing experience for all our customers at Chelmsford City Racecourse. We were not able to achieve that last night and are now working flat out to return to normality from tomorrow.”