Primrose Valley created history at Wolverhampton when winning the first race ever staged in the UK on the new Tapeta surface. Pic: Courtesy of ARC.

By Simon Jackson.

Arena Racing Company’s (ARC) racing director Jim Allen reiterated their commitment to the all-weather after the successful start to racing on Tapeta at Wolverhampton.

The race meeting on Monday attracted 2,000 spectators to Dunstall Park to witness racing on the new synthetic Tapeta track, which was being used for the first time as a racing surface in the UK.

The ARC announced in late April that Wolverhampton would close to replace their former Polytrack with the synthetic surface invented by the Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Michael Dickinson and Allen is delighted with the result.

“Today underlines ARC’s commitment to all-weather racing in Great Britain. We have made major investments in all our all-weather surfaces at Lingfield Park, Southwell and now here at Wolverhampton,” Allen said.

“In addition we have exciting plans for a new all-weather track at Newcastle which will make a major contribution to the future of all-weather racing in Great Britain. We will also be sharing plans for the forthcoming 2015 All-Weather Championships in the coming weeks.”

Dickinson added: 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.”

The first race on the new surface was the 32Red Casino Median Auction Maiden Stakes which was won easily by the Ed Vaughan-trained Primrose Valley, who led all the way in the hands of Frederik Tylicki.

“She broke and travelled on it really well,” Vaughan said after the six-length victory. “There appeared to be virtually no kick back – not that it would have affected us! I am looking forward to having a lot more runners at Wolverhampton in the months ahead.”

The winning jockey agreed: “It rode really well,” Tylicki said. “I could find no fault with it.”

Read ‘Horse Talk with Simon Jackson’ at London24 for the latest horse racing news.