Great Leighs once had a lion's head over the outlet. In 2008, Great Leighs became home to the first new racecourse in 80 years, when the nearby Essex County Showground was converted into a state-of-the-art horse-racing venue. Great Leighs Racecourse held its first race meeting on 20 April 2008 and staged its first meeting fully open to the public from 28 to 29 May 2008. However, the course had its temporary licence revoked on 16 January 2009 and did not seen racing again unto 11 January 2015. Great Leighs Great Leighs is a village in the City of Chelmsford district of Essex,
Union Race Course Trotting Park' but the increasing value of the land for housing proved too much. The final horse race was run at Union Race Course on July 18, 1863. The positioning of this race course, as well as the earlier built race course called Pioneer Race Course appear to have affected the placement of the San Francisco-San Jose Railway. Union Race Course Union Race Course was a horse racing track opened in the 1850s in San Francisco, California located in the Mission District. There were two horse race courses in the Mission District at this time, the other being Pioneer Race