Great Leighs Racing, the developers of the Essex County Showground site, want to combine a horseracing venture with an international equestrian show-jumping facility.
The facility would include a one-mile plus oval track with a 5,000 seater covered grandstand incorporating a members? terrace, restaurants, hospitality suites and permanent media production studios.
There will also be an onsite training facility for 120 horses, which will run in a series of late-morning meetings to serve the growing global internet and offshore telephone betting industry, the developers said.
Great Leighs racing intends to retain control of its own media rights and has already been in discussions with the British Horseracing Board.
Essex businessman John Holmes, who bought the Showground in 1997, is behind the project and aims to realise the potential for a racecourse ?unencumbered by unwieldy tiers of management or reactionary committees?.
BBC Outside Broadcast resources is the preferred provider of television facilities for Great Leighs, the company said.
Racing could start as early as spring 2002, said the company.
