New racecourse may be left at the start

Britain's racing authority today admitted it feared "the train may have already left the station" long before London's delayed £100 million new racecourse project is ever given the green light by Government.

Organisers of London City, a floodlit all-weather track proposed for Fairlop Plain in the east of the capital, confidently expect a conclusion from Transport Secretary Stephen Byers' department to the public inquiry into the project before the New Year.

But - even if given the go-ahead before January - developers Wiggins' state-of-the-art track, with a spectacular grandstand designed by Norman Foster's architecture firm, will now not open until autumn 2004 at the earliest, more than two years later than planned. Growing frustration - albeit without any great surprise - about the delay within the British Horseracing Board (BHB) could mean London City is not the first new all-weather racetrack to be built in Britain.

The rapid progress of modern betting, through interactive means and via the internet on a global platform, has made critically urgent the need for a top-class, all-weather track that can provide a product at times to suit a worldwide appetite for racing.

BHB has revealed that "it is not inconceivable" that a different track could pass through its formal process and reach completion before 2004.

"The problem is that time is slipping away," said BHB racing director, Paul Greeves. "British racing needs to take a key position in the rapidly expanding worldwide forum for betting. Its future income depends on it. We must be able to race at times outside of daylight hours all year round.