A year on from its launch, Southwell Racecourse is reaping the benefits of its new multi-million Tapeta track. The popular Nottinghamshire venue continues to stage top class All-Weather action as well as attracting well bred young horses from top stables in novice and maiden races.
The demand to race on the new surface has also helped Southwell – widely regarded as one of the best tracks of its kind in the world - achieve the highest average field size of all Britain’s All-Weather tracks as it celebrates its first anniversary.
Executive Director Mark Clayton says: “The first year has been an outstanding success and we are very proud of the contribution it is making to British racing.
“The track has gone through a bedding in process and we expect it to ride to its optimum this winter. Feedback from jockeys, trainers and owners alike has been excellent and the number of runners we attract is a glowing endorsement in itself.”
As it continues to play a key role in Season 10 of the annual All-Weather Championships, Southwell looks forward to staging two Fast Track Qualifiers for the £1 million Finals Day at Newcastle on Good Friday.
The first of those on New Year’s Day offers the winner a guaranteed place in the £150,000 Fillies and Mares Final, and a week later Southwell will stage its first ever qualifier for the two-mile Marathon Final – a race that promises to bring the best All-Weather stayers to the Tapeta track.
“It’s exciting to have two Fast Track Qualifiers so early in the New Year,” adds Mark. “With 49 fixtures on the new flat track and 18 Jump meetings, catering for horses at every level, 2023 promises to be even more successful.”
With state-of-the-art floodlights already in place, Southwell’s new era began on 7th December 2021 following three months of work to replace the previous Fibresand surface which had pioneered All-Weather racing three decades earlier.
The highlight was the £40,000 Winter Oaks Trial, won by James Fanshawe’s now 97-rated Viola, but it was the Charles Hills-trained Carausius who went into the history books as the first ever winner.
Back in January, the second of two Fast Track Qualifiers for Finals Day was won by the highest rated horse ever to grace the racecourse. My Oberon, trained by William Haggas, boasted an official rating of 113 when he won the mile feature.
In fact, he went on to claim the Mile crown at Newcastle three months later en route to further high-profile success at Windsor and Moonee Valley in Australia.
Among other notable performers on the Tapeta was star two-year-old Eddie’s Boy, who made a winning debut over five furlongs in April before going on to finish third in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot and winning the valuable Super Sprint at Newbury and the Group 3 Prix Eclipse in France.
Now Southwell looks forward to putting more talented performers like him on the pathway to stardom.
