Racecourse Debutants

Not one, not two, but THREE bands make their Wolverhampton Racecourse debut in April, all performing after all-weather evening meetings for hospitality guests and entertainment ticket holders to enjoy.

Envy - Saturday 5 April
Based in the North East, this superb boy band perform the greatest hits from legendary boy bands Take That and Westlife. Having been together for 14 years, the Wolverhampton date will be one of their last before going their separate ways! Check out their cover of Westlife's 'When You're Looking Like That'.

Heart Of Glass (Blondie Tribute) - Saturday 12 April
A Tribfest regular, Denise Danielle leads her five piece Blondie Tribute in a magnificent show, performing Blondie's classics from the past four decades, famous for chart toppers including "Maria", "Call Me", "One Way Or Another" and many more. Check out Denise and the band in action on YouTube.

Wham Bam Duran: 80's Night - Saturday 26 April
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, and of course, Rick Astley. If you've got 3 minutes and 33 seconds to spare, revel in the glory days of the 1980's (1987 to be exact) and watch this!

Packages start from £31.95 for a three course meal, racecourse admission, table for the evening and access to the fantastic post racing entertainment as listed above. Book your package online now (www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk) or call us on 01902 390000.

Lincoln Trial Family Day

It was another fantastic Lincoln Trial Day on Saturday, with 1,400 visitors turning out in the wonderful spring sunshine to witness top notch racing and enjoy a day of family entertainment.

The first race of the day was the Class 1 Lady Wulfruna Stakes, and was won comfortably by Chookie Royale (pictured). Tom Eaves guided the Keith Dagleish trained 6 year old home in front, kicking on the turn of the home straight, in exactly the same fashion as when he won here a month ago. Chookie Royale has won by an impressive combined 10 and a half lengths over two top class races here.

The Lincoln Trial Handicap followed, a £50,000 Class 2, which didn't disappoint racecourse visitors and Channel 4 racing viewers alike. The 11/2 shot Whispering Warrior took the race under Jim Crowley by half a length, the next 6 finishers separated by just over 2 lengths. Chookie Royale will now go to Lingfield Park to contend for the All-Weather Championships mile division title, and Whispering Warrior has an entry in the Lincoln at Doncaster Racecourse later this month.

Not just an exciting afternoon of racing, the kids enjoyed their day at the races with some fantastic Ringside activities, as well as face painting and crafts provided by Dudley Zoo, and appearances from Dudley Zoo and racecourse mascots, Jambi and Freddie Furlong. Our next Family Fun Day is on Monday 11 August, and features popular children's TV characters Mike the Knight and his sister Evie.

Freddie is also rumoured to be in action for Sport Relief coming up next weekend  (Friday 21 - Sunday 23 March), watch this space for video clips of his fundraising events. £1 from all advance bookings for our evening meeting (and darts event on the same night) on Friday 21 March will go to Sport Relief, join the racecourse in helping a brilliant cause and book your tickets now: http://www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk/whats-on/fixture/21-march-2014/

50 Days Of All-Weather Championship Racing Remain

Today marks the 50 day countdown to the All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Lingfield Park on Good Friday, April 18. It was four months ago today, on Saturday 26 October, that we hosted the opening day of the Championships. Of the 7 winners that day, one has gone on to run creditably in Dubai at the carnival, one went hurdling for the winner (winning one race and coming second in her other), three haven't run since their victories and the other two have run here without putting another All-Weather Champs victory to their name. The most notable of the runners from that day though is the Marco Botti trained Grey Mirage, who since finishing third in the opening race, has gone on to win three Class 2's and come second in another and is now top of the "Horse of the Year" league table with £58,598.50 in prize money.

The most valuable day of the All-Weather Champs season here is still to come though, with over £130,000 in prize money up for grabs on our Lincoln Trial Family Day. The day features two £45,000 races with the winner of the Lincoln Trial (Class 2) and Lady Wulfruna Stakes (Class 1) also going on to compete for further valuable prizes at Doncaster and Lingfield respectively.

Click on the image for the website fixture page

All leaderboards and league tables are updated every Tuesday and can be seen online here. The table the punter's are keeping an eye on in particular though are the jockeys standings, Luke Morris and Adam Kirby have been separated by only a few winners all season, both seen around the four tracks driving home favourites and outsiders alike. As the All-Weather Championships ambassador, Luke "the sniper" Morris writes a blog for the competition which gives a great insight into the Championships from the jockey's perspective, and is a real must read for all of you all-weather racing followers; http://www.awchampionships.co.uk/blog/

The Season Of Spring Live Music Is Upon Us

On a wet and blustery evening last Saturday a few loyal racegoers and many entertainment seekers turned out to watch our first 8 race card of 2014, followed by a superb live music performance, and disco, from ABBA Tribute, Swede Dreamz. On the track we saw Caramack complete his hat trick here, despite going up in grade, the 4 year old won in the same fashion as previously coming home late to win by less than a length. A rare runner at the track for Tim Vaughan made a winning debut, Nellie The Elegant won at a massive 16/1 SP under a great ride by David Probert.

If Swedish pop isn't your cup of tea there's no need to worry as we have music to suit all tastes coming up over the next couple of months, just check out our line-up:

• Saturday 15 March - Hipster (Rock & Pop)
• Saturday 5 April - Envy (Boy Band)
• Saturday 12 April - Heart Of Glass (Blondie Tribute)
• Saturday 26 April - Wham Bam Duran (80's Power Pop)

The entertainment is thick and fast come March with our Lincoln Trial Family Day kicking off proceedings on the 8th, as well as a fantastic Pro/Am Darts Evening with a few legends of the game on Friday 21 March.

Although we're without live music for the remaining Saturdays in February, we have got Friday evening meetings for the rest of the month, including today, with the first race off at 5.05. The aptly named 'Dazzling Valentine' runs here this evening, maybe the sentimental pick in the 7.05 for our racegoers sharing the exclusive Valentine's Day Package in Horizons, for which there's still availability for all of you super late plan makers, call us now for details!

UB40!

It's the mystery act you've all been waiting for since we released our feature music evening details last year. Today we launched the news that performing on Friday 29 August at the racecourse, live after an evening race meeting will be UB40.

Founded in Moseley, and named after the form they used to fill out to collect their employment benefits, the Unemployment Benefit, form 40, the international reggae group have since gone on to have a few number 1's, including famous hits such as "I Got You Babe", "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Red Red Wine". Worldwide the band have sold 70 million records, and so will be the biggest band to ever perform at Wolverhampton Racecourse.

Click on the image to visit the fixture page

After a cracking music evening in 2013 featuring Scouting For Girls, we hope this year's event will be even bigger and better, book your tickets now via the website or over the phone, hospitality packages are available for the evening including the fabulous Horizons Restaurant Package and excellent Ringside Restaurant Package, which so many of you enjoy on our tribute and live band nights, these are expected to sell out fast so book early to avoid disappointment!

It promises to be another fantastic evening of entertainment at the racecourse, keep an eye out on our Facebook and Twitter for latest news on the band and maybe even a competition or two.

Year of the Horse

As I type up this blog, Luke Morris is putting in a top class performance out on the track, victorious in our first three races on today's card, the Year of the Horse is looking like it could be a really lucky one for the Wolverhampton regular!

The Chinese New Year is approaching, and this year from January 31 it will be the 'Year of the Horse'. To celebrate the heart and soul of the sport of kings we've put on a competition to win a fabulous prize. The competition is one for all of you digital individuals with the week long competition taking place on Facebook and Twitter. With nearly 10,000 of you following us now we hope we'll get some cracking entries.

So, the competition, all you have to do is like, share and comment with your New Year's Resolutions on our original competition Facebook status (http://on.fb.me/1ayQlGY) or for all of you Tweeters out there, re-tweet and reply to one of our competition tweets (@WolvesRaces) with your New Year's Resolutions. It's as easy as that!

The best New Year's Resolution, as judged by our judging panel, will get a table for 4 in the stylish Horizons Restaurant, which offers the best seats in the racecourse, for a meeting of their choice before July 31 2014, and we're even throwing in a bottle of wine. Pick your meeting wisely and you may even get to see another globetrotting superstar, like Jakkalberry, who won our class 2 last Friday evening in comfortable fashion.

Get on over to our social media feeds now and get your entries in! Good Luck!

January!

It's been a week since New Year's and nearly two since our Boxing Day fixture, how the time flies. If like us you're back to work, feeling the cold snap and watching the pennies after splashing out over the festive period then we've got a little something just for you that'll get you over those holiday blues... FREE RACING!

Click on the image to go to our fixture list

Now in it's fifth year, this is the perfect opportunity to catch the All-Weather Championship action at absolutely no cost, or splash out just a little and go Premier for a fiver. We've still got 10 fixtures left this month so there's no shortage of opportunity to come down for a day at the races.

We're gearing up here for our only Sunday fixture of 2014 this coming Sunday, we hope you'll be joining us to catch the action, or better yet, join us in the Horizons Restaurant for a wonderful Sunday lunch and enjoy the racing from some of the best seats in the racecourse.You can't turn down these views at a discounted price!

Boxing Day Build Up

Our 20th anniversary of all-weather racing here is fast approaching, occurring on one of our most popular fixtures of the year, Boxing Day. Preparations are in full swing at the racecourse and just now we have had the declarations for what is sure to be a good day's racing, including two £19,000 class 2 handicaps - http://www.attheraces.com/allcards.aspx?meetingid=63965&date=2013-12-26&ref=atrfixtures

Click on the image for the Boxing Day fixture page

A three and a half thousand strong crowd is expected for the day, and if the forecasts go to plan, it seems as though we'll have a dry, but very chilly day, so get the thermals and big coats on and wrap up warm for a fantastic day at the races. For those of you dining in style for the day in one of our fabulous restaurants, we have a marvellous festive menu on offer (pages 17 and 19 on the link below): http://www.wolverhampton-racecourse.co.uk/downloads/Christmas-brochure.pdf

We will be closing the booking for our special saver package for the day in a few hours. The Boxing Day Saver Package is only £20 and includes admission, drink voucher, food voucher and a racecard, superb value for money!

We hope you'll join us at our 20th anniversary celebrations, tweet us your all-weather memories from the racecourse using the #WolvesAW20.

£45,000 Handicaps

It hasn't been two weeks ago since we held our most valuable race ever over the winter months, a class 2, Ladbrokes sponsored, £45,000 handicap, and on Saturday evening we're doing it all again. The winner of the 6:20, a class 2 handicap, sponsored by Coral, will take home £28,012.50, with 2nd to 6th taking home the remainder of £45,000.

Again we welcome Solar Deity to the course (pictured winning last time out) for Saturday's feature race. He'll be hoping to make it a hat-trick of our top valued races in 2013, having won the previous £45,000 handicap on 30th November, and the William Hill Lincoln Trial on March 8th.

Martin Harley, Solar Deity's regular jockey, has been racking up the wins in recent weeks, marauding up the All-Weather Championship jockey's league table. As of Tuesday, the day after nabbing a four timer here, Martin sat top of the table, fending off close competition from all-weather favourites; Adam Kirby, Luke Morris and Silvestre De Sousa. The competition is fierce between the four, separated by only a couple of wins, much closer than the owners and trainers tables, in which Godolphin and Evans respectively are seemingly running away with the titles. We're not even half way through the season however and so there's plenty of racing to come before the Godolphin team and Evans' yard can feel safe at the top.

The festive months may be the period that we come into our racing element here, but it's not just on the track that we're entertaining racecourse guests. A brilliant crowd turned out last Friday and Saturday for our first Christmas party nights, and another excellent crowd is expected this weekend for another double helping of Christmas Party entertainment. We've got another few festive events to come too for you late festive party bookers, including; an Elvis Christmas Party Night on the 20th of December, our 20th anniversary Boxing Day Racing and a New Year's Eve Party to take you into 2014!

Click on the tree for our event listings

20th Anniversary

It's only 20 days till Christmas, but even more excitingly here, it's 21 days till Boxing Day, which this year will mark the 20th anniversary of all-weather racing at Wolverhampton Racecourse! We're celebrating the occasion with live music, fabulous All-Weather Championship racing and a host of packages for our visitors to choose from for this momentous occasion.

Click on the image to go to the Boxing Day fixture page

Over the past 20 years the racecourse has played host to many wonderful race meetings and some magnificent events. Hosting around 100 fixtures a year, the racecourse has been entertaining racing enthusiasts all year round for many years, special mentions go out to those Wolverhampton Racecourse stalwarts who have provided competitive races time and time again, one such figure is up for the special achievement award this evening at the ROA annual awards, good luck Almaty Express and all connections!

Not just a consistent fixture on the racing scene, the racecourse has been the location of some brilliant entertainment acts and has become renowned over the years for its Saturday evening entertainment after racing, which has featured some excellent tribute acts, local bands and live singers. By far the biggest act to perform at the racecourse however featured on last year's calender when Scouting For Girls entertained nearly 4,000 visitors on a fantastic summer evening, watch this space though for the announcement of a star band for the feature music evening in 2014!

Let us know some of your favourite moments at the racecourse from the past 20 years on our Twitter feed (@WolvesRaces) using the '#WolvesAW20' hashtag. We'll even feature a few of these on our new digital screen on the Boxing Day fixture!

We look forward to celebrating this wonderful occasion with you!