Racing has been abandoned at Chelmsford City Racecourse on Thursday and Friday following a decision by the board of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) not to grant a licence to Golden Mile Racing Limited (GMRL). The latter is the name of a new company formed to operate Chelmsford City Racecourse (CCR) in place of the previous licence holder Great Leighs Estates Limited (GLEL), which has been placed in administration.Declarations were taken on Wednesday morning by Weatherbys for Chelmsford's Good Friday meeting, which was advertised as being worth a total of £251,000. Two hours later the BHA released its decision, stating its “reasons for this decision are confidential”. A preliminary decision had been made by the board on Sunday but GMRL was then allowed to make oral and written representations on 31 March but failed to have the decision overturned.The Essex track now faces an uncertain future. Its meeting scheduled for April 9 has also been cancelled, with the possibility of future fixtures going ahead being dependent on the outcome of a potential appeal.The BHA's statement released just after noon on Thursday stated, “Having considered the matter carefully and taken full account of the points raised, the board's position remained that it did not consider it appropriate to grant a racecourse licence for CCR to GMRL. “The Board's decision means GMRL is not licensed to stage any fixtures, pending the outcome of any appeal. This means that regrettably no further fixtures will be staged at CCR pending the outcome of any appeal process. This includes the fixtures on 2 April, 3 April and 9 April. “In accordance with the Rules of Racing, GMRL may appeal the board's decision to the independent Licensing Committee (Rule (B)19). A request for permission to appeal must be made to the Judicial Panel Executive within 21 days of receipt of the decision being challenged (Judicial Panels Code, paragraph 105). The 21-day time period starts from the date GMRL receives the written reasons.”The licence held by GLEL expired on March 31, with the most recent meeting held at the track on March 26 having been given permission to go ahead with the agreement of the administrator. The April 2 and 3 fixtures will not be rescheduled. The statement continued, “Plans for future fixtures, including 9 April, will be announced in due course. “The BHA has worked tirelessly with stakeholders to deliver this week's fixtures. It is regrettable they have been cancelled at such short notice. We recognise this will impact participants – especially trainers, staff and jockeys – as well as racegoers.”Originally known as Great Leighs, racing began at Chelmsford under the ownership of John Holmes in 2008, but the track was shuttered in 2009 when the previous ownership company was placed in administration. Since its reincarnation as Chelmsford City Racecourse in 2015, the racecourse's operating licence, which expired on March 31, had been held by Great Leighs Estates Limited. Corporate insolvency administrators were officially appointed for GLEL by the High Court on March 25.The planned handover of the licence from GLEL to Golden Mile Racing Limited, which has John Holmes and his son Nathan, Chelmsford City Racecourse's commercial director, listed as two of its directors, was said to be part of a “long-planned ongoing restructure” of the venue. Representatives from Chelmsford City Racecourse have been approached for comment.The lateness of the announcement from the BHA board, after running plans for Friday had been finalised through the declaration process, has elicited some criticism from participants. Trainer Stuart Williams said on social media, “This decision seemed inevitable from what had been in the press, but to pull the trigger after taking declarations for Friday's meet at 10am is a real slap in the face for owners/trainers and [jockeys]. Some of these races have been targeted for months. Tone deaf from [the BHA].”Jockey Paddy Bradley said on his X account, “To allow declarations at 10am on the richest day of all weather racing of the year and then cancel the fixture an hour later leaving jockeys unable to ride at other meetings is disgraceful.”Trainer John Berry added, “It's disappointing but one gets used to disappointment. And in our case the disappointment is tempered by the fact that the horse whom we had declared for Chelmsford on Friday, Merrijig, holds an entry for Kempton on Monday, so he can go there instead.“What is hard to swallow, though, is the chaos. Obviously there was a question mark hanging over Chelmsford's future, both immediate and long-term, following the announcement last week of the course's financial troubles. But if the meetings were going to be called off, common sense said that it wouldn't be such an eleventh-hour debacle; and certainly the decision would be taken prior to declaration time, simply on the basis that the later it was left, the more inconvenience would be the caused to more people.” The post Racing at Chelmsford Under Threat as BHA Denies Licence appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.