THE company which owns Chepstow Racecourse has said it is “inevitable” they will have to “undertake a restructure” after reports that up to 400 people could be made redundant across the business.

A redundancy consultation process is now under way for hundreds of workers at Arena Racing Company (ARC) - the largest horseracing company in the UK.

ARC operates 16 racecourses but has mothballed courses at Brighton and Worcester this year as a result of the economic effects of Covid-19.

The impact of the process on Chepstow Racecourse and its staff remains unclear.

But an anonymous source who works there has told the Argus they have been told that “most departments will soon be run from a central location, leaving minimal staff at the racecourse”.

“This will affect jobs massively,” they said.

“I can’t understand why a company which is still earning a vast amount in media money from racing behind closed doors are so quick to make redundancies.”

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ARC has been holding race meetings behind closed doors at courses across the UK since mid-June, and is hoping to welcome some spectators to its four-day St Leger meeting at Doncaster from Wednesday September 9.

The Chepstow staff member added: While on furlough we’ve had emails, firstly to say despite the money saving efforts they will have to make redundancies, and that the consultation period will end at the beginning of October.

“This week we’ve received the proposed infrastructure.

“The proposed new structure states that employees of some departments would have to work at all southern sites and be based at a central location to apply for one of the new positions.”

An ARC spokesman said: “Racecourses, like all other businesses across the sport and live events sector, rely hugely on public attendance, whether that be for race days or the multitude of other events, conferences and meetings that we host throughout the year.

“We have, in that regard, had no product to sell since March and with the significant uncertainty over when the public may be allowed back to venues, it is difficult to consider when that business may return.

“It is unfortunately inevitable that we will have to undertake a restructure of our organisation to reflect this fact.

“This process will take place over the coming weeks.”