Wolverhampton Racecourse is a

thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

venue located in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

, West Midlands,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The track was the first to be floodlit in Britain and often holds meetings in the evening. The track surface has been Tapeta since 2014.

History

There has been a racecourse in Wolverhampton since 1825, in what is now the West Park, where the Park Road follows the line of the track. This was sold to the Corporation in 1878 and, after a gap of nine years, a new course was formed at Dunstall Park. Dunstall Park racecourse, Wolverhampton - geograph

Dunstall Park racecourse, Wolverhampton - geograph

In 1993, the final National Hunt meeting took place at Wolverhampton. In December of the same year, the course was re-vamped with floodlights and a new all-weather Fibresand track that ran alongside the turf track. A hotel, new grandstand, restaurant and executive boxes were also built at this time. The Queen re-opened the racecourse in January 1994. In 1999, the course was bought from private ownership by Arena Leisure. In 2004 the Fibresand and turf tracks were replaced with a single Polytrack surface, as well as refurbishment of the hotel and conference facilities. Since that time the course has only held flat all weather races. Following the merger of

Arena Leisure Arena Leisure plc was a Public Company based in London, England, which existed as an independent entity until 2012 when it was merged with Northern Racing to form the Arena Racing Company. The company operated seven of the UK's horse racing c ...

and

Northern Racing Northern Racing was a private company that owned ten horse racing courses and one golf course in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1998 by Sir Stanley Clarke CBE, and after being listed on the Alternative Investment Market, was owned privatel ...

, Wolverhampton became part of

Arena Racing Company Arena Racing Company, also called ARC Racing and Leisure Group is a UK private company, created in 2012 by the merger of Arena Leisure and Northern Racing. It owns and operates 16 racecourses in Great Britain, accounting for 39% of British rac ...

. In 2014, the course was closed for redevelopment that included relaying the course with a Tapeta surface. The course reopened on 11 August 2014. The course has been granted planning permission by Wolverhampton City Council, to expand the hotel from 54 to 170 bedrooms and to tarmac the over-spill car park. The £26 million project also includes plans for a casino which would create the first

racino A racino is a combined race track and casino. In some cases, the gambling is limited to slot machines, but many locations are beginning to include table games such as blackjack, poker, and roulette. In 2003, Joe Bob Briggs described the eco ...

in the UK. The

Lady Wulfruna Stakes The Lady Wulfruna Stakes is a Listed flat horse race in Great Britain open to horses aged four years and over. It is run at Wolverhampton over a distance of 7 furlongs and 36 yards (), and it is scheduled to take ...

is the most valuable race at Wolverhampton. One of the most notable winners of the race is Sovereign Debt who won the Group 3, 2017 Diomed Stakes at

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

. Three-time champion jockey, Ryan Moore, is the most successful in the saddle in the race with four wins.

Course

The course is one mile (1,609 m) in circumference, with tight left-hand turns — giving it greater commonality with most racetracks found in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

than with other venues in the UK. The straight is short at just two furlongs. The surface was Fibresand until 2004 when it became a

Polytrack The track surface of a horse racing track refers to the material of which the track is made. There are three types of track surfaces used in modern horse racing. These are: *Turf, the most common track surface in Europe *Dirt, the most common trac ...

. As of 2014, the surface was changed to Tapeta.

Notable races

Concerts

Wolverhampton Racecourse has hosted a number of concerts including

Madness Madness or The Madness may refer to: Emotion and mental health * Anger, an intense emotional response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat * Insanity, a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns * ...

, Jess Glynne, Kaiser Chiefs,

UB40 UB40 are an English reggae and pop band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the ...

and

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

References

External links

Wolverhampton Racecourse (Official website)
Horse racing venues in England Sport in Wolverhampton Sports venues in the West Midlands (county) Sports venues completed in 1825 {{England-horseracing-venue-stub