Wolverhampton betting at William Hill
Guide to Betting at Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is an all-weather track and was the first racecourse to be floodlit for evening meetings in Britain.
Ideally situated in the heart of the Midlands, Wolverhampton betting now extends to around 80 fixtures per year. The most valuable Wolverhampton races are the Lady Wulfruna Stakes and the Lincoln Trial.
The surface for all-weather racing at Wolverhampton is Tapeta, as is used at Newcastle. William Hill promotions provide the best Wolverhampton odds with price boosts and special offers.
Betting at Wolverhampton – The Big Meetings
The biggest meeting of the year at Wolverhampton takes place in March and features the Lady Wulfruna Stakes. The supporting card includes The Lincoln Trial, which is a prep race for the first big betting race of the flat turf season.
Wolverhampton stages numerous floodlit evening meetings and regularly attracts a large Saturday-night attendance. It’s one of six all-weather tracks in Britain, along with Lingfield, Kempton Park, Chelmsford City, Newcastle and Southwell.
Wolverhampton Betting – The Big Races
The Listed Lady Wulfruna Stakes is for horses aged four years and over and takes place over 7f. The race is now a qualifier for the All-Weather Championships, with the winner gaining a free entry for the £1m Finals Day at Lingfield Park.
The Lady Wulfruna Stakes was first run in 2002 and was won by Air Mail. Border Music won the race in 2006 and 2007 with Dunelight winning in 2010 and 2011.
Other notable winners include the all-weather specialists Chookie Royale (2014) and Sovereign Debt (2015). Sovereign Debt denied Chookie Royale a second successive victory.
Second Thought was a popular Wolverhampton tip in 2018 for William Haggas and Ryan Moore. He started odds-on favourite after winning a Listed race at Kempton Park the previous season. Earlier in the afternoon, Big Country won the Lincoln Trial Handicap for Michael Appleby and Luke Morris.
Wolverhampton Betting Tips
A useful Wolverhampton tip is to look for runners with plenty of early speed in races up to 7f.
Although the surface is fair, the short home straight makes it very difficult to make up ground. This is arguably more important than the draw, although it’s better to be drawn low in races featuring 10 or more runners.
Wolverhampton betting on the Lincoln Trial can influence the ante-post market for a big handicap at Doncaster. Trainer Paul Cole ran Kuala Lipis (1997), John Ferneley (2000) and Nimello (2001) at Wolverhampton prior to winning at Doncaster. Keep a close eye on the placed horses as well as the winner of the Trial.
Newmarket trainers John Gosden and William Haggas regularly send horses up to Wolverhampton and they’re often worth following. David Evans and Michael Appleby regular feature in Wolverhampton bets and Tom Dascombe also has a good record at the track.
There have been plenty of winning Wolverhampton tips for Luke Morris and very few jockeys know the track better than him. Adam Kirby and Oisin Murphy have also enjoyed plenty of success at the course.
Visit news.williamhill.com for the top racing stories, plus betting previews, tips and the latest Wolverhampton odds.
Wolverhampton Course Characteristics
Wolverhampton racecourse is a left-handed oval track of just under a mile in circumference. The all-weather Tapeta surface, installed in 2014, has proved universally popular with trainers and jockeys. Wolverhampton is now one of the busiest racecourses in the country.
Wolverhampton is quite a sharp track with a short home straight of about 2f. Because of the nature of the course, it generally favours the smaller, more compact speed horses over bigger, long-striding horses.
Wolverhampton Racecourse - How to get there
The racecourse is situated at Dunstall Park, Wolverhampton. It’s just 15 miles from Birmingham and is easily accessible by road via the A449 dual carriageway.
There are frequent trains to Wolverhampton train station from London, Birmingham and Manchester. The station is less than two miles from the track, with a frequent bus service on race days.
Wolverhampton Horse Racing History
Wolverhampton racing was first held at West Park in 1825. The land was sold to the local Corporation in 1878, with racing resuming at the current Dunstall Park site in 1888. Wolverhampton races originally staged both Flat and National Hunt Racing on turf.
An all-weather fibresand track was constructed alongside the original turf course in 1993. There was also a new Grandstand along with a hotel, restaurant and executive boxes. £16m was spent on new floodlights so that the course could also stage evening meetings.
Wolverhampton Racecourse was officially re-opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.
In 2004, Wolverhampton race meetings on turf ceased, with a new Polytrack replacing both turf and fibresand courses. In 2014, the Polytrack was replaced with a Tapeta surface, the first of its kind to be used for European racing.
Tapeta was designed by the former champion National Hunt trainer Michael Dickinson and is a mixture of sand, rubber and fibre coated in wax.
Wolverhampton was also a pioneer of twilight racing with meetings starting in the late afternoon and running late into the evening.
Plans for a further £23m expansion including a casino were later abandoned. Wolverhampton racecourse currently attracts around 120,000 visitors per year.
Famous Wolverhampton Races and Racehorses
One of the most popular Wolverhampton tips in recent years was Stand Guard, who won 11 times at the course.
He beat the previous record of 27 all-weather victories by Southwell specialist La Estrella. Stand Guard recorded a record 28th victory at Kempton in January 2017, before being retired at the age of 14.
One of the oldest ever winners of a horse race was Wild Aster, who won here at the age of 18 in 1919. He’s one of only five horses to have won at that advanced age under rules.
Her Majesty The Queen had her first winner here in 1964 with Menai in the Bushbury Maiden Stakes. Sir Michael Stoute’s Conduit was a hot Wolverhampton tip when winning a maiden in 2007. He went on to win the St Leger in 2008 and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2008 and 2009.
Muhannak also used Wolverhampton races as a stepping stone to greater things. He won a Median Auction Stakes in 2007 before doing the same in the Breeders’ Cup Marathon two years later.
Toast of New York finished a close second at the Breeders’ Cup in 2014, a year after winning twice at Wolverhampton by an aggregate of 28 lengths.
The great Sir Gordon Richards rode at Wolverhampton for the first time in June 1922 when he was still an apprentice. He finished second on a horse called Knight of the Orient.
In 1924, Captain Tuppy Bennett fell from Arden in the Oteley Handicap Chase and later died from his injuries.
Perhaps the greatest National Hunt horse to win at Wolverhampton was Saucy Kit, winner of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in 1967. Peter Easterby’s gelding won The National Hunt Hurdle Cup here at Wolverhampton the previous season.
