MADNESS TO PEFORM LIVE AT WOLVERHAMPTON RACECOURSE

Ska band Madness will be performing here on Friday 25 September, live after an evening race meeting, as part of their Grandslam tour.

Our Managing Director, David Roberts, said “I am delighted we will be welcoming Madness to the racecourse later this year. Madness will be the biggest act to perform at the racecourse, and this serves as testament to how successful previous live music evenings have been for Wolverhampton Racecourse and the wider Arena Racing Company group.”

Best known for chart topping hits such as “Baggy Trousers”, “House of Fun”, “One Step Beyond” and “It Must Be Love”, to name but a few, Madness have achieved international recognition as one of the greatest Ska bands of all time.

Since their rise to prominence in the early 1980’s, Madness, lead always by ‘Suggs’, have sold out arenas, headlined festivals and picked up an array of top musical accolades. The band has achieved fifteen UK top ten singles and two UK number one albums.

Most recently the band released the “One Step Beyond – 35^th Anniversary” album and will be touring the country throughout 2015.

The concert will take place after racing on Friday 25 September in the Centre Course. Anyone purchasing a ticket will get to enjoy a full race meeting followed by the concert.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk or by calling us on 01902 390000. Keep up to date with the racecourse news and information via Twitter (@WolvesRaces) and on Facebook (‘Wolverhampton Racecourse').

SLADE TO PEFORM LIVE AT WOLVERHAMPTON RACECOURSE

Chart topping, local rock band Slade will be performing at Wolverhampton Racecourse on Saturday 5 September, live after an evening race meeting.

Wolverhampton Racecourse’s Managing Director, David Roberts, said “It’s fantastic to have such a high profile band performing at the racecourse, returning to the Black Country where they originated from back in the late 60’s. After the great success of UB40 live after racing on last year’s feature music evening date, we are very much looking forward to Slade continuing with the success of live music events at the racecourse.”

Slade rose to fame in the 1970’s glam rock era with hits including “Coz I Luv You”, “Cum On Feel the Noize”, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” and “Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me”. The band has enjoyed six number one singles and three number one albums, with their hits topping the charts across the globe.

The concert will take place after racing on Saturday 5 September. Anyone purchasing a ticket will get to enjoy a full race meeting followed by the concert.

Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on/fixture/5-september-2015/ or by call 01902 390000. Keep up to date with the racecourse news and information via Twitter (@WolvesRaces) and on Facebook (‘Wolverhampton Racecourse’).

First Live Music Event of 2015!

 

First Live Music Event of 2015!

We are fast approaching our first live music event of the year on Saturday 7^th February, with live after racing entertainment from 80’s band “Wham Bam Duran”. We still have hospitality packages available so feel free to contact our sales on team 01902 390000 to book your tickets now. We may not have had any live music events since December, but that’s not to say we haven’t been busy.

Our Christmas party season was a huge success, and our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed party went down a treat! Oompa Loompa's were on hand to entertain throughout the night, much to the delight of the party goers.

Boxing Day this year was extremely busy, with all hospitality packages sold out and thousands of families coming through the turnstiles, to share the festive spirit with us and fellow race goers. Not even the snow was able to put people off from an extremely busy day. Boxing Day also proved to be a success not only for us, but also for the Godolphin team, who in the Boxing Day snow, continued their winning ways with Greatest Journey (pictured) taking the Class 3 penultimate race in the hands of Alistair Rawlinson.

 

 

 

2015 is looking like it is going to be another successful year for Saturday night entertainment after racing. There are live music and tribute nights to suit everyone’s tastes, a few highlights being:

Saturday 7^th February – 80’s night with Wham Bam Duran

You requested those 80's power hits, and we've booked Wham Bam Duran to perform them for you! Classics from Duran Duran, Wham, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Wet Wet Wet and the Pet Shop Boys are all on the agenda.

 

 Saturday 14^th March – Madness tribute with One Step Beyond

Previous years have seen race goers go wild for previous Madness tributes, we know that this year, racecourse debutants One Step Beyond with provide race goers with a fantastic night of music.

 

 Saturday 11^th April – Abba tribute with Swede Dreams

Abba tribute band Swede dreams will be performing all the bands best known songs for what is sure to be an entertaining and fun filled night.

 

 

We’ve not been in short supply of racing since we last blogged, witnessing 13 fixtures in little over a month. La Estrella (pictured) is one of the most notable winners over this period, after success here at 1m4f in December, the 12 year old went on to win at fellow ARC and All-Weather Championship course Lingfield Park, equalling the all-weather wins record set last year at 26 by Stand Guard, who has since retired, it shouldn’t be long before La Estrella is turned out again in an attempt to break the record. From all-weather stalwarts on four legs to those on just two, king of the sand, Adam Kirby, notched his 1000th ever winner here just before the turn of the year, when he gave Copper Cavalier a fine ride for Robert Cowell and his owners. David Roberts, Managing Director of the racecourse, presented Adam with a bottle of fizz, surrounded by the jockeys he’d just fended competition off from as he has done on so many occasions here on the all-weather!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is almost upon us!

It has been a little while since we last blogged, but what an exciting period it has been for us. In recent weeks we have had the pleasure of being a part of two of Wolverhampton’s biggest events on the calendar. As well as these exciting events we have also seen the last live music act of 2014 perform and the start of our Christmas party season. Looking forward, we are preparing for our popular annual Boxing Day raceday, which once gain has seen all hospitality packages sold out!  Do not worry though, Grandstand Admission and Premier Admission tickets are still available, contact our sales on team 01902 390000 to book your tickets now.

November saw us once again host the annual awards for the Black Country Chamber of Commerce, which was a massive success. The event was compared by BBC radio WM’s Phil Upton, with Chamber President, Ninder Johal also making a presentation to members of the Chamber. The evening was a lively event and we look forward to this event next year as well.

 

 

 

 

 

We also had the pleasure of hosting the annual charity gala for Promise dreams, which this year carried the theme “putting on the Ritz”. As usual the evening was a great success and guests pulled out all the stops to bring glamour and glitz to the racecourse. Patrons of the charity, Susie Perry and Steve Bull made an appearance as well as popular 80’s band Go West and the evening’s surprise guest Chloe Jasmine, from this year’s X Factor!

 

 

 

 

 

November 29^th saw our last live music act of the year, Baby Love, performing in a sold out Ringside Restaurant after racing. The last live music event of the year made way for our Christmas party season to begin the week after. We are pleased to say that they have so far been amazing festive evenings. We also have a new event this year as we are hosting a Willy Wonka themed Christmas party this Friday, which will include Willy Wonka’s Magic Chewing Gum Menu (as tasted by Violet Beauregarde) and a lively disco until late, with our very own DJ as Willy Wonka. Just a few spaces remain for this fantastic party!

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly the Racecourse is preparing for Boxing Day, which is one of the highlights of our racing calendar. This year has seen all hospitality packages once again sell out for this raceday, and we are sure that this fixture will see record crowds and be filled with festive fun!

To accompany these wonderfully festive racecourse events the action out on the track has been nothing short of highly competitive and enthralling. The All-Weather Championships has brought about three Fast-Track Qualifiers already on the Tapeta, with Godolphin runners showing superior strength by winning two and finishing a very narrow second in the other. Hidden Gold and Portamento (pictured) will both be going to Finals Day at Lingfield Park on Good Friday next year.

 

Coming into its fifth year, racegoers will be able to enjoy racing for FREE again this coming January with the Free January Racing initiative here at Wolverhampton. Upgrades are available too for Premier Admission tickets and Horizons Restaurant packages at brilliant value!

Six Tremendous Weeks

It's been over a month since we last blogged, but that's certainly not because we've been short on events and news! In the six weeks we've hosted UB40, we've staged another fabulous Ladies Evening, we've had a host of acts perform live in the Ringside Suite, we've welcomed Promise Dreams walkers across the finish line, we've held the largest UK Networking event, and somewhere in amongst all of this we've fit in over ten racing fixtures on the new Tapeta surface.

Taking you back to the final weekend in August, a capacity crowd watched a seven race evening meeting followed by international reggae stars UB40 performing live after racing. The old favourites were all played, the crowd going crazy for a spot of Red Red Wine and (I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You and a thoroughly good night was had by all. If you've not already, check out the pictures on Facebook.

We were then glad to see just a week later many of you return for the annual Ladies Evening, this year sponsored by Tile Choice. Live music was provided after racing by boy band Fate, and Derek Thompson was on hand throughout the evening bringing his Tommo TV live to the racecourse before playing MC to the Best Dressed Competition. The racegoers outfits were fantastic and it was the job of guest judge, and award winning fashion blogger, Emma Iannirilli to choose the best dressed lady and the best hat. The deserved winners were: Adele Farrell from Tamworth (Best Dressed Lady) and Cafolin Campbell from Birmingham (Best Hat).

The At The Races team were in attendance on Ladies Evening filming for a Wolverhampton Racecourse feature, keep an eye out for this on Sky Channel 415 and soon to be posted on YouTube.

It's not just off the course the crowds have been dazzled and wowed though, as racing on the new Tapeta surface has been pretty entertaining too! A few Class 2s and 3s have thrown up some very good winners and the fixtures have been attracting some big, competitive fields with some top class horses on display. Even today we have a previous Group 1 winner in our midst, Regal Parade, who won the Sprint Cup at Haydock in 2009 is engaged in the 6.20. As we near the start of another All-Weather Championship season, some of the top yards are getting their Tapeta form up to scratch, the likes of Qatar Racing and Godolphin often sending some excellent horses.

As jockeys, trainers and owners have reported, the racing has been fair and winners have been coming from the front, back, inside and out to claim victory on the new surface. We're beginning to find a few Tapeta specialists, with Fiftyshadesfreed being one in particular, racking up a hat-trick in less than a month. In his 15 starts before this the 3 year old grey had only managed 2 victories, both at Kempton Park. Now a Class 4 winner, trainer George Baker, and owning syndicate Team Fifty, must be relishing the All-Weather Championships at Wolverhampton, and a crack at some high class races with some equally impressive prize money on offer.

New bands, tribute acts and racecourse favourites have made September appearances, and we look forward to seven more live music evenings before December comes around, and the beginning of the festive season with a whole host of party nights. The full lineup can be found online here.

Two consecutive evening meetings conclude this week at the racecourse, both with eight race cards, tickets available on the gate or book your hospitality package now by calling us on 01902 390000, and Christmas parties are beginning to book up very quickly with packages already selling out, get your group together and make the booking now to avoid disappointment!

An excellent start to racing on the Tapeta

It's been just over two weeks since we opened our gates again to racegoers after those three months out of action. In the last 15 days we've staged 3 race meetings on the new Tapeta track which have been well attended and well received by all in the racing community.

Group 1 winning jockeys have been racking up the winners on the new surface with William Buick, Kieren Fallon, James Doyle, Neil Callan and George Baker just a few of the names to pick up one of the 21 races so far. It's the less decorated jockeys though that have been grabbing the headlines from the meetings with Rachael Kneller returning here, to her local track, to pick up a 20/1 winner with a fabulous ride aboard Arlecchino's Leap in the first race on Monday 18 August, this was followed later in the week by another superb female jockey performance when Amy Scott rode a double, getting 14/1 shot Dream Catcher first past the post, before notching a more comfortable victory aboard 9/2 joint second favourite Zed Candy Girl.

Although a few jockeys, owners and trainers have won a couple of races, there remains only one horse to do so. The racecourse has uncovered a Tapeta star in Low Cut Affair (pictured), ridden on both occasions by Declan Bates, the 2 year old has taken to the surface like a duck to water, winning by a combined 11 lengths in Class 6 company. Trained by David Evans, there is surely some valuable prize money to be won in handicaps by the filly during the fast approaching All-Weather Championship season.

Racing continues this evening with a seven race card beginning at 6.20pm. Ryan Moore makes his first trip to Wolverhampton in a while to ride just the one for Sir Michael Stoute. The 3 year old gelding, Freemason, carries the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing colours and will oppose 11 runners including two Godolphin runners, both trained by Charlie Appleby and a John Gosden runner, owned by Group 1 winning owner George Strawbridge, most notably known recently for Moonlight Cloud and Thought Worthy.

We're then on to our feature event of the year this Friday, and the biggest event at the racecourse for some time, when UB40 will be performing live after racing. Tickets are still available but availability is very limited, to book your tickets call the racecourse office on 01902 390000.

Click on the image to go to the fixture page on our website

Innovative Racing Gets Underway At Wolverhampton Racecourse

At 2.15pm on Monday 8 runners and riders made British history by being the first to race on a Tapeta surface in Great Britain. Five furlongs was the distance tackled by these history makers, and in a time of 1 minute and 3 seconds the very impressive Primrose Valley (pictured) was first past the post for Frederik Tylicki and Ed Vaughan, by some 6 lengths!

It was a fitting tribute to all-weather surfaces that a horse owned by Alan Pickering would win the first race. Alan is great advocate of all-weather racing, often sending his runners to Lingfield Park and Kempton Park to run on their Polytrack surfaces.

Two thousand interested racegoers turned out to witness how the track would act and the results couldn't have been more positive. Winners came from the front, from the back, up the inside running rail and around the outside of the field to finish down the middle. Little kickback was experienced all afternoon with winning first race trainer Ed Vaughan commenting, "there appeared to be virtually no kickback", and jockeys noting the surface was faultless.

James Doyle, who has been enjoying a fantastic season aboard the sublime Kingman, rode a double on the day with victories coming aboard Angels Wings in the 3.15 and Madame Mirasol in the 4.15, for Charles Hills and Kevin Ryan respectively. The jollies had a good day in Wolverhampton, winning 4 of the 7 races, including the lucky last when William Buick gave Warrigal a superb ride to bag his only winner of the day for the in form Jeremy Noseda, James Doyle was only 3/4 of a length behind on Cousin Khee but Buick's victory was never in doubt after he took the lead over a furlong out.

Tapeta inventor, Michael Dickinson, was in attendance for the afternoon and said after the fixture, "We are delighted to have helped bring Tapeta to British Racing. The track has proved fair and formful, and every jockey has reported it as a safe surface to ride on. We hope it will provide years of excellent racing at Wolverhampton. We will continue to work closely with the team at Wolverhampton to ensure the track meets the needs of horses and jockeys."

Interested to see Timeform's review of the fixture? Check it out here.

All eyes now turn to Monday evening's fixture, first race off at 6.20pm, and Primrose Valley holds an entry in the feature race in the 8.50. Join us for another fantastic fixture, tickets from just £10.

What's Happening At The Racecourse

We may be without racing fixtures at the moment as our new Tapeta track resurfacing takes places, however the racecourse is still in full operation. From auctions to exhibitions, business functions to weddings, the racecourse, and our onsite Holiday Inn, are being kept very busy through the racing-less period.

Just yesterday we hosted the Black Country Growth Hub launch, utilising our premier conferencing facilities, which saw many local manufacturers and businesses, along with Black Country Chamber of Commerce members, support local manufacturing in what looks set to be a fantastic initiative. June has been a busy month of events, and most notably, two weeks ago today we staged the Black Country Asian Business Awards. In the 13th year, it was another resoundingly successful event, check out their highlights and pictures via the BCABA website: http://bcaba.co.uk/updates.html

Not only is it all go at the racecourse, but the racecourse team are getting out and about with free raceday tickets and racecourse goodies. Over the summer, you can visit the Wolverhampton Racecourse stall at the Shrewsbury Flower Show, Wolverhampton City Show and Shugborough Good Food Show, where as well as picking up a few freebies, the racecourse team will have with them an equiciser, for all to test their jockeying skills on.

In this busy season of flat racing, keen eyes from the racecourse are on the feature meetings to watch the Wolverhampton form. Of note, Patience Alexander, who scored impressively on his debut here back in April has recorded some fantastic results at York and Ascot in Class 1 company since, and Euro Charline, twice an All-Weather Championship winner on her first two races, has since ran superbly in Group races at Newmarket and Ascot, it's only a matter of time before she puts her head in front having made the frame on a couple of occasions. We can't wait for our August fixtures to come around and potentially unearth a new star of the racing world!

Polytrack-less

Two weeks into resurfacing work and we're now without any Polytrack, the mile round track down to just the concrete base, with cleaning and amendments to the base in progress. The new Tapeta surface arrives at the racecourse on Monday and is expected to take approximately a month to lay down.

Final Wolverhampton Polytrack winner and Godolphin jockey, Silvestre De Sousa, rates the surface highly, "We love our Tapeta track at Al Quoz and the Tapeta at Meydan on World Cup night was an excellent track". The consistent safety record, durability in all conditions and easier maintenance makes the surface a popular choice among jockeys, trainers, owners and the racecourse teams.

News hit this morning that Meydan will be switching from Tapeta to a dirt surface, and so Wolverhampton's new track will be even more unique to the racing world, and will hopefully attract those top class horses that have taken to the Tapeta, picking up valuable wins at Meydan in recent years.

The first of our transferred fixtures took place on Monday with Lingfield Park staging our seven race card. David Evans and Adam Kirby paired up again to score on the card, like they have done so often before at Wolverhampton, with 1 of the 2 runners that Evans sent south for the afternoon, the other a regular at Wolverhampton, Kodafine, finished a close 3rd, unable to break her Lingfield duck.

The first meeting back is our Family Fun Day on Monday 11 August, tickets available online via our website or call us on 01902 390000 for more details and to purchase.

From Polytrack To Tapeta

After fixtures on both Monday afternoon and Tuesday evening, track resurfacing began promptly on Wednesday. From Monday 11 August we will be racing on Tapeta, which is most famously known for being the surface raced on at Meydan in Dubai, this will make Wolverhampton Racecourse the first racecourse in the UK to race on Tapeta, soon to be followed by fellow Arena Racing Company racecourse, Newcastle.

Diggers are currently pulling up the Polytrack surface and piling for sale. The mile long track will then be swept clean before the process of laying the Tapeta can commence. The construction of Tapeta is similar to Polytrack but with slightly different components, Tapeta uses a selection of specifically blended fibres, waxes, PVC and sand depth of up to 7 inches, check out the diagram below to show how the innovative all-weather surface will lie.

Many owners, trainers and jockeys are very positive about the surface, having raced on it at Meydan, Presque Isle Downs and Golden Gate Fields. All-Weather Championship winning trainer Mark Johnston explains, "In the early part of 2009 I trained on Tapeta, Polytrack and the famous Middleham High Moor turf gallops. Since June, although I still had other options, I chose to train almost exclusively on Tapeta. Our Tapeta gallop is second to none and has made a huge contribution to the year's achievement and to the health of the team."

The final winner on our Polytrack surface was Arabian Comet (pictured below), with Silvestre De Sousa aboard, trained by William Haggas and owned by Abdulla Al Mansoori. Who will be the first winner of the first Tapeta race in the UK? Join us on Monday 11 August to find out!

Our fixtures scheduled for May to July have been moved to Lingfield Park and Southwell Racecourse, click on the links to visit their websites and book your next all-weather raceday. As for us, after the first afternoon meeting on Monday 11 August, we have 4 evening meetings in August, hopefully accompanied by the glorious summer sunshine, finishing off with evening racing before UB40 live on Friday 29 August.

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